KEY POINTS:
This morning, shortly before he rises to take the presidential oath, America's new leader will hear a sombre stretch of music, with a haunting weight only strings can provide.
Air and Simple Gifts, featuring Itzhak Perlman on violin and Yo-Yo Ma on cello, moves from its initial quiet
beauty to livelier, more celebratory, notes.
Barack Obama's speechwriters will have crafted a similar composition for his oratory to voice.
There will be an articulation of the seriousness of the economic situation America is in, touching on themes of personal responsibility and accountability.
Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told NBC: "We need that culture of responsibility, not just to be asked of the American people, but its leaders must also lead by example."
But Obama will also balance the message with reassurance and optimism that the US can find its way out of the gloom.
Yesterday in Washington DC, the streets were full of people wandering around the ceremony and parade sites as light snowflakes fell. Immediate areas around the Capitol and White House were closed off and barriers were up in readiness for this morning's parade. The roads, full of ubiquitous gleaming black and tinted cars and stretch limos, seemed less congested than the day before.
Obama has also been willing in recent days to cloak his personal story around the nation's and the timing of his inauguration, just after Martin Luther King Day yesterday, has added poignancy to the event.
He told the Washington Post: "There is an entire generation that will grow up taking for granted that the highest office in the land is filled by an African American.
"I mean, that's a radical thing. It changes how black children look at themselves. It also changes how white children look at black children.
"What I hope to model is a way of interacting with people who aren't like you and don't agree with you that changes the temper of our politics."
He told CNN: "If you think about the journey that this country has made, then it can't help but stir your heart. The notion that I now will be standing there and sworn in as the 44th President, I think, is something that, hopefully, our children take for granted, but our grandparents, I think, are still stunned by, and it's a remarkable moment."
Obama's intelligent and worthy views of his presidential power aside, it's clear that the symbolic significance of his ascension is such that he is being mythologised at an unprecedented rate.
Yesterday, television commentators were proclaiming Obama as the answer to King's famous "dream". Memorabilia was sold here with the pair balanced as inspiring equals. Even on the internet Google here used artwork of King designed by Shepard Fairey, the man responsible for the famous screen print of Obama that is already historic.
The inauguration memorabilia shops have been doing brisk trade. General shops try to touch the magic any way they can, with pictures and artwork.
In difficult times and after a widely reviled presidency, Obama's story is a feel-good refrain that people want sold to them.
The rest of the world may have moved on to considering what the Obama presidency will bring, but here this street party has been largely about celebrating what he has already achieved.
And when you see the famous symbols of American power in their bricks-and-mortar glory, it's not hard to understand why.
