III: BEFORE A PAINTING
For SATB and piano
Sheet Music
Available for SATB with piano and opt. strings through MusicSpoke.
ABOUT THE COMPOSITION:
“Before a Painting” is the third of four movements in the larger work One Art. This piece centers on the power of visual art and its ability to unite people. The poem reflects on the transformative impact of a painting. While it includes musical and religious references, these function as metaphors for the emotional and spiritual effect the artwork has on the speaker. Art can feel otherworldly—almost like a religious or meditative experience. It can sweep us away, stir deep emotion, and even inspire us to be better human beings.
In this movement, I focused on using text painting to illustrate and enhance the poetry. Harmonic shifts symbolize the painting’s transformative power, while frequent descending scales envelop the listener in cascading music and light. This effect is especially vivid on the line “and over me a sense of beauty fell,” evoking both emotional weight and the imagery of light streaming through cathedral windows.
Melody also plays a key role in the text painting. The opening has a chant-like quality, establishing a cold, empty tone that reflects the speaker’s initial emotional state and sets up the meditative, sacred
atmosphere that emerges later. Another example appears in the line “silent I stood and made no move or sign,” where the music becomes intentionally still and silent, mirroring the speaker’s immobility and awe.
ABOUT ONE ART:
This work was commissioned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the South Milwaukee High School Performing Arts Center and its ongoing commitment to nurturing creativity and human connection. This work celebrates unity through the universal languages of music, dance, and the visual arts. The School District of South Milwaukee acts with a relentless commitment to remove barriers and care for all students so they feel accepted and will learn without exception.
Movements
I. ALIVE
II. DANCE WITH ME
III. BEFORE A PAINTING
IV. ONE ART
BEFORE A PAINTING
I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line.
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine.
And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell,
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.
- James Weldon Johnson
