They created a densely layered forest of light over the New York skyline, each charge dying slowly, weeping into crumbling rivers of light.
As a brass band played a mournful "St James Infirmary" and then an ecstatic "Down by the Riverside", I noticed a greying, middle-aged man in work dress weeping by the river.
But news accounts make it obvious that the major holdup now is bankers crying themselves a river, weeping, moaning, and gnashing their teeth.
The house sits on a small peninsula, lined with weeping willows, just 50 yards from the river.
And the lyrics are as impassioned, emotive and colourful you'd expect from a South American President in the 19th Century; 'In agony, the virgin tears out her hair' and 'the river runs with blood and weeping', for example.
The pitches are laid out along the river amid beautiful trees, including oaks, beeches and weeping willows.
Comparatively large terraces often have views of the town's narrow, white-sand river beaches, many of which are fringed by weeping willows and squat palms.
The crowds filed past the representation of a river of blood in muffled silence, placing flowers and sometimes scrawled names, weeping openly when passing the 1,000 or so tiny seats commemorating the city's murdered children.
In a slurred voice, heavy from weeping, the veteran, named Robert, told her that he was homeless and wanted to "just lay down in the river and never get up".
