For solo guitar. Duration: c. 7 mins

LISTEN

Lascivious Pleasing was written in April 1995 and is subtitled Rhapsody No. 2. I was toying with the opening phrase of John Dowland’s lute song Flow My Tears when I found that with a couple of small changes, it became the beginning of the Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood. I then treated it in a serial way, not unlike my earlier work Rhapsody on a Riff. However, the title has nothing to do with that; it comes from Shakespeare’s Richard III, and is one of my favourite descriptions of the sound of a lute or a guitar. – Michael Calvert

He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute

- Richard III, I:1

Lascivious Pleasing was recorded in 2015 by Matthew Marshall on the album Rhapsody on a Riff (Ravello Records RR7907).