Only The Young (arr. Mark Brymer): SSA Choral Octavo

Mark Brymer's arrangement brings contemporary pop sophistication to the SSA voicing without sacrificing the song's emotional core. Your singers will engage immediately with material they already know and love, and the accessible voicing means you can build genuine three-part blend without requiring advanced sight-readers.

Youthful energy coursing through accessible harmony. The song maintains its infectious optimism even in choral form, with moments of genuine vulnerability that let singers explore dynamic contrast and emotional nuance.

Directors seeking high-engagement repertoire that connects with singers who grew up on contemporary music. This works equally well for concert programs, pops nights, or mixed-voice showcases where you need something current and singable.

• Balance the melody line so it cuts through the inner voices; SSA textures can easily bury the tune if the sopranos don't sit slightly forward in the mix.
• Lean into the phrasing language of the original recording rather than treating this as classical music. The song breathes in conversational rhythms, not metronomic ones.
• Work the altos and second sopranos as a unit during their harmonic passages so the underlying chord progression supports rather than competes with the top line.

Pair this with other contemporary arrangements to anchor a pops concert, or program it as a palate cleanser between classical works on a mixed repertoire concert. Ten pages makes it substantial enough to stand on its own but brief enough to fit flexibly into rehearsal schedules.

• Sustaining intonation across three independent lines in pop harmony
• Balancing melody and accompaniment textures in close voicings
• Applying contemporary phrasing and articulation to notated music
• Building ensemble blend with modern songwriting vocabulary