Lakeside

Lakeside is one of those pieces that began as an improvisation.

I was playing for a wedding ceremony in a park in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was a beautiful early fall day, with the heat of summer forgotten.

The selections for the ceremony were traditional and classical. In my planning conversation with the bride, I asked if she had any requests for the twenty minutes of pre-ceremony music.

“Just play pretty things,” was her answer.

My second selection was the ever-popular Prelude from Bach’s First Cello Suite. The original is in G, but my arrangement is in D, a more guitar-friendly key.

As the final chord of the Bach rang out, I thought briefly about the sweet melodic line at the beginning of the piece.

What if I took that brief motif, inverted it, and played it first over the I chord, then over the IV?

So I did.

Finishing the Bach in D, my fingers moved to a G chord, next up in the Circle of Fourths. The eight-measure theme practically completed itself, and it’s pretty much what you hear today.

I added the intro section, which doubles as the second theme, a bit later.

The piece began as a solo guitar composition, but I thought it needed something more. Writing a melody for Debra Stombres’ lovely flute and arranging the piece for the two instruments was a natural next step.

Was this piece originally imagined as a lullaby? It was not.

Does it have the restful, relaxing quality that might lull a child to sleep or help a busy person unwind after a stressful day?

I hope so.