Surely He Has Borne Our Grief: SATB Choral Octavo

Hayes brings a gift for crafting text-driven choral writing that serves the sacred message without sacrificing musicality. The setting feels both accessible to singers and substantive enough to move a congregation, making it equally effective in concert or worship contexts where emotional authenticity matters.

The work inhabits a meditative space that acknowledges suffering while pointing toward hope. Hayes's harmonic language is warm and grounded, never cold or overly academic, allowing the profound text to remain the emotional center.

This octavo serves SATB choirs preparing for Easter services or spring concerts. It works equally well for church music programs seeking substantial yet performable sacred literature and for community choirs wanting repertoire with both musical integrity and spiritual resonance.

• Balance the inner voices carefully in the opening sections; the alto and tenor lines carry harmonic weight that shouldn't disappear behind the sopranos and basses.
• Allow the text's weight to shape your phrasing rather than forcing regular phrase lengths; let the theological content breathe.
• Consider the dynamic landscape across all 13 pages and plan climactic moments well in advance with your singers so builds feel purposeful rather than arbitrary.

Pair this with other Hayes settings or contemporary sacred works to build a thematic Easter concert that speaks to both liturgical tradition and modern sensibilities. Its 13-page length makes it substantial enough to anchor a first-half program without overwhelming rehearsal time.

• Singing text-driven choral lines with attention to both harmony and meaning
• Balancing four independent vocal lines in sectional writing
• Sustaining emotional consistency across longer forms
• Responding to harmonic language that shifts color to reflect textual emphasis