Wednesday 8 July 2020
Tune of the Day: Portrait charmant
arranged for two flutes
This flute duet is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833. The only other appearance of the melody that we could find is in a 1817 Philadelphia edition for voice and piano, which sadly does not mention a composer. It is a setting of a poem written by Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
Lovely portrait, portrait of my friend,
Token of love, through love obtained,
Ah! Come and offer me the good that I lost:
Seeing you again brings me back to life.
Some publications mention an 1814 musical setting by Belgian composer Charles Lis (1784–1845), but we were unable to ascertain whether it is the same as the present one.