A Child is Born (arr. Hans Reintjes): SSATB Choral Octavo

Hans Reintjes's arrangement opens up a sophisticated jazz composition to singers who might never touch a jazz fake book. The harmonic language stays true to Jones's vision while remaining performable by choirs with mixed experience levels, and the SSATB voicing gives you real flexibility in how you deploy the piece.

The piece carries warmth and reflection without sentimentality. It opens as a gentle meditation on birth and arrival, then allows the harmonies to deepen into something both intimate and joyful.

Directors building holiday programs that move beyond the expected choral canon will find this valuable. It works equally well for choirs that sing regularly in jazz settings or those exploring the genre for the first time.

• Shape the melody with jazz inflection rather than classical phrasing. Think about how a vocalist might land on the lyric, then encourage your singers to breathe that sensibility into the written line.
• Balance the lower voices carefully so the soprano melody doesn't disappear into a wall of sound. The arrangement's harmonic richness depends on hearing all four parts working together.
• Treat rubato and flexibility as compositional features, not departures from the score. This arrangement asks singers to float slightly over the accompaniment in places, creating that jazz feel.

Pair this with traditional Christmas fare to show the range of the season's musical expression. It's particularly effective as a closing piece or as part of a set exploring how jazz musicians have engaged with holiday themes.

• Navigating jazz harmonies and voice leading (sevenths, extensions, alterations)
• Phrasing and inflection in a jazz idiom
• Balancing melodic and harmonic lines within a dense harmonic texture
• Singing with flexibility and rubato over a steady accompaniment