Tuesday 18 January 2022
Tune of the Day: Oh It is not While Riches
arranged for two flutes
This “original Irish melody” was composed around 1830 by pianist William Eavestaff, about whom not much is known.
Oh it is not while riches and splendour surround us,
That friendship and friends can be put to the test,
'Tis but when afflictions cold pressure has bound us,
We find which the hearts are, that love us the best;
For friends will fawn at fortune's dawn,
While the breeze and the tide waft us steadily on,
But if sorrow o'ertakes us, Each false one forsakes us
And leaves us to sink or to struggle alone.
The present arrangement for two flutes appeared in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833.