What'll I Do: SATB Choral Octavo

Kirby Shaw's arrangement respects the emotional core of this Berlin standard while giving it the space and texture an a cappella choir needs. The piece sits beautifully for mixed voices and offers genuine interpretive freedom; it's sophisticated enough to satisfy discerning audiences without demanding stratospheric vocal technique.

A tender, introspective moment punctuated with the gentle longing of a classic love song. The harmonies feel both familiar and fresh, creating an intimate atmosphere that connects performer to listener.

This arrangement works for concert choirs seeking accessible yet sophisticated repertoire, community and church choirs wanting a recognizable standard with modern harmonic writing, and advanced high school groups ready to handle nuanced phrase work and blend challenges in an a cappella setting.

• Balance the melody line across soprano and alto voices so the tune stays clear; resist the urge to let sopranos dominate from measure one.
• Shape the harmonic layers beneath the melody as active countervoices rather than static filler. Each voice part has a reason for its contour.
• Take your tempo guidance from the text's emotional pacing rather than a metronome. The piece breathes best when singers have room to lean into the lyrics.

This fits naturally into a concert exploring American songwriting traditions or a program featuring Broadway standards. It also serves as a thoughtful ballad placement between higher energy pieces, giving audiences and singers a moment to settle into genuine emotion.

• Balancing melodic lines across multiple voice parts
• Sustaining legit tone while maintaining diction in a cappella singing
• Shaping phrases around text meaning rather than structural repetition
• Blending and tuning in contemporary harmonic contexts