Here's To Life: TTBB Choral Octavo

Ed Lojeski's arrangement captures Horn's sophisticated sensibility without losing the song's warmth. The flexible voicing option (TB/TTB/TBB/TTBB) means you can perform this with the exact ensemble you have on any given night, and the nine-page octavo is substantial enough to feel like a real concert moment rather than a filler piece.

Elegant and reflective, like a conversation over a drink late in the evening. The song carries a gentle melancholy balanced with affection, and Lojeski's arrangement respects that tone throughout, never pushing sentiment into sentimentality.

Choirs with solid intonation and the interpretive maturity to handle jazz harmonies and the kind of emotional restraint that makes sophisticated music work. Directors programming a concert that needs a grown-up moment, something that trusts the audience to lean in rather than deliver everything loud.

• Keep the harmonic language transparent. This song lives in the spaces between notes, so resist the urge to layer every voice thickly. Light balancing will make the jazz inflections read clearly.
• Treat the text conversationally rather than formally. Horn's delivery always sounds like she's thinking through the lyrics in real time, so encourage singers to find that same naturalism in rehearsal.
• Pay attention to how the arrangement sits on your singers' voices across the different voicing options. A TBB arrangement will have a different weight than TTBB, so choose based on what feels right for your section's strengths.

Pair this with other jazz-influenced choral works or use it as a palate cleanser after more energetic repertoire. It works beautifully in a spring or winter concert that emphasizes lyrical singing, and the flexible voicing makes it adaptable if your personnel shifts mid-season.

• Singing jazz harmonies and understanding voice leading in contemporary harmonic language
• Lyrical phrasing and shaping lines across longer phrases rather than measure-by-measure
• Stylistic flexibility and how to sing conversationally rather than theatrically
• Intonation in jazz chords that don't function in traditional major-minor tonality