La La Land: Choral Highlights (arr. Mark Brymer): SAB Choral Octavo

Brymer captures the dreamy, jazz-inflected palette of La La Land without relying on key changes or extreme ranges that sink many pop arrangements. The SAB voicing opens this music to mixed choirs that might otherwise feel locked out of contemporary repertoire, and the arrangements preserve the film's emotional arc across multiple songs.

These arrangements carry the wistful, late-night quality of the film itself. The harmony breathes; nothing feels rushed or overstuffed. There's romance in the writing, but it's understated and earned rather than sentimental.

Mixed choirs looking to program contemporary film music with harmonic sophistication and emotional authenticity. Directors building a concert that reaches beyond traditional choral repertoire without sacrificing musicality, and singers who respond to music from their own cultural moment.

• Pay attention to the jazz inflections in the harmony; these aren't pop songs flattened into choral arrangements. Explore the added sevenths and suspended chords to find the color that makes La La Land distinctive.
• Balance the altos carefully in spots where they carry inner harmonic movement. Their voice part often anchors the jazz sonority, so they need to be heard without overpowering the sopranos.
• Use the dynamics marked in the score to shape phrases. La La Land's orchestration relies heavily on swells and subtle pulls; mirror that sensibility in your voicing decisions rather than singing at one level throughout.

Build an entire concert around La La Land as a centerpiece, pairing these highlights with one or two other film scores or contemporary works to create a thematic evening. Alternatively, use individual selections as accessible stepping stones into jazz harmony for singers who might find traditional jazz arrangements intimidating.

• Reading jazz harmony including seventh chords and extensions
• Balancing inner harmonic voices in three-part writing
• Phrasing contemporary music with attention to orchestral color
• Stylistic interpretation of film music idioms