Upon purchase, you will receive a download link to a .pdf score.

for SSAA voices and piano

~ 7 min

The Painter on Silk sets a devastating text, with the same title, by Amy Lowell (1874–1925)

There was a man
Who made his living
By painting roses
Upon silk.

He sat in an upper chamber
And painted,
And the noises of the street
Meant nothing to him.

When he heard bugles, and fifes, and drums,
He thought of red, and yellow, and white roses
Bursting in the sunshine,
And smiled as he worked.

When he could get no more silk,
He stopped painting
And only thought of roses.

The day the conquerors
Entered the city
The old man
Lay dying.
And wished he could paint the roses
Bursting into sound.