Exsultate in Seven: SAB Choral Octavo

Andy Beck has engineered something genuinely useful here: a piece that teaches mixed meter through music, not through explanation. The 3 + 2 + 2 organization feels natural and dance-like rather than academic, so singers internalize the pattern by living in it. The optional descant, trumpet fanfare, and timpani part give you flexibility to scale up the impact for a concert or festival setting without overcomplicating the fundamental choral challenge.

Exsultate in Seven radiates joy and motion. The dance-like rhythm feels kinetic and celebratory rather than metrically complex, driven by the infectious 3 + 2 + 2 organization that becomes second nature quickly. When the soprano descant enters and the optional trumpet fanfare rings out, the piece blooms into something genuinely majestic.

This octavo suits SAB choirs eager to tackle mixed meter in a musical, non-threatening way. It works equally well for concert singers and competitive festival groups; the optional instrumental parts let you adjust the arrangement to match your ensemble's strengths and the venue.

• Feel the 3 + 2 + 2 grouping in your body before drilling rhythms on pitch. A few rehearsals of walking or swaying to the pulse will lock the meter in without tedium.
• Balance the soprano descant carefully; it should soar above the main voicing but never overshadow the text-driven homophonic sections that anchor the song.
• If you're adding the optional trumpet and timpani parts, rehearse the choir independently first so singers don't rely on instrumental cues to find their way through the meter changes.
• The Latin text and English sections work best when articulation is clean and unified across all three voice parts, especially in the rhythmic figures that define the dance character.

Open a concert with this piece to set an uplifted, energetic tone for your audience. Its accessibility as a mixed-meter teaching tool and its festival-ready construction also make it a confident submission for competition; directors appreciate writing that educates singers while delivering a polished, engaging performance.

• Reading and performing mixed meters (3/4 and 2/4 within a single phrase)
• Maintaining rhythmic independence while tracking meter changes across voice parts
• Blending Latin and English text articulation in a single work
• Balancing three-part harmony with a soprano descant without losing clarity of the primary melody