Emma Lou Diemer

By the Sea

This three-movement suite was written for Tachell Gerbert and Bradley Gregory. The work is based fragmentally on the tune from the popular song written in 1914 by Harry Carrell and Henry Attenridge, which is appropriate as the composer's inspiration is the Pacific Ocean, located a few miles from her home in Santa Barbara. The movements are not meant to be impressionistic imaginings of the ocean, but rather moods intrinsically related to the happiness, sometimes nostalgia, of the melody and the romance, the idea of being by the sea with someone you love.