Hold On!: Choir, SATB, Choral Octavo

Jackson Berkey's arrangement honors the intricate relationship between White Hawk's original vocal melody and guitar part, preserving the rhythmic complexity that makes this piece both musically substantive and culturally meaningful. The optional instrumentation (guitar, bass, percussion) gives you flexibility to perform this with piano alone or to build toward a fuller, more ensemble-driven sound that captures the piece's original character. Programming a piece with this kind of authenticity and visual symbolism creates a moment that resonates beyond the concert hall.

Hold On! brings together folk-rooted simplicity with rhythmic sophistication. The piece moves between moments of introspection and statements of collective strength, mirroring its text about people coming together across differences. There's a sense of both grounding and uplift, as if the music itself is cradling something precious while reaching outward.

This octavo serves choirs who want to program meaningful contemporary work with both musical substance and cultural resonance. It works well for intermediate to advanced SATB ensembles with access to piano accompaniment at minimum, and even better for groups who can add guitar or other optional instruments.

• Study the original recording to internalize how the rhythmic variety in the vocal line relates to the guitar accompaniment. White Hawk's phrasing is idiomatic to that guitar-voice dialogue, and understanding it will help your singers find natural inflection rather than treating the rhythm as merely technical.
• Differentiate the rhythmic feel between verses (half-time) and choruses (double-time) through careful work with your rhythm section and any optional percussion. This shift creates forward momentum and prevents the piece from settling into a single groove.
• If you're using optional guitar or bass, rehearse those parts with the choir early so singers can lock into the rhythmic foundation. The interplay between voice and instruments is compositionally intentional, not decorative.
• Balance the message of unity and interconnection in the lyrics with precise ensemble work. Blend matters here, but so does clarity of diction when singing about 'holding on together.'

Program this in a concert where you're exploring themes of community, resilience, or cultural identity. It pairs naturally with other contemporary American repertoire or as a bridge piece between traditional and modern works. The artwork described in the octavo makes this particularly effective on programs that combine visual and musical storytelling.

• Reading rhythmic variety across vocal lines and maintaining clarity when rhythm parts shift between half-time and double-time feels
• Blending SATB voices in contemporary harmonic contexts while preserving textual integrity
• Responding to and supporting a rhythmic foundation when guitar or bass accompaniment is present
• Understanding how vocal melody and instrumental accompaniment can be compositionally interdependent rather than hierarchical