Working With The Mark Hayes Arrangement Of Believe For SSA Choirs
You pick up this piece expecting a straightforward holiday chart, and most of the time that's what you get. Mark Hayes knows how to write for school choirs. He keeps the harmonies accessible while still giving the section leaders something to hold onto. The range sits comfortably in SSA territory, and the vocal writing doesn't waste time on effects that look good on paper but sound thin in a gym. Here's the thing most directors miss on first read-through. The piece opens with a sustained unison line in the sopranos, then the altos drift in a third below. It sounds simple, which means people underestimate how much work it takes to keep the intonation clean across that gap. A flat low alto will sink the whole chord immediately. I learned this the hard way during a November rehearsal when the second soprano section started drifting sharp on the held pedal tones. The fix was stopping the tenor alto alignment exercise entirely and running isolated vowel matching on the open syllables before bringing the harmony back in. The midsection shifts into a more rhythmic phrasing pattern that mirrors the train motif from the film. Hayes marks this with careful dynamic shaping rather than forcing the choir to push through it. The trick is getting them to understand that mezzo forte here doesn't mean pushed. It means supported. If you let the breath support drop on the long phrases, the pitch goes sideways fast. I use a quiet hum exercise at the first rehearsal to lock in the breath management before anyone sees the words.
One counter-intuitive note about the climax: the full SSA chord that lands on the word believe is denser than it appears. Hayes stacks thirds and sixths in a way that requires every voice to sing slightly softer than they want to. When sopranos naturally overcompensate with volume, the alto line gets swallowed and the tenor line turns muddy. The workaround is asking the first sopranos to take the lead on balance rather than power. They're usually the strongest singers in the room anyway, so telling them to listen more feels natural rather than restrictive. The vocal ranges are tight but fair. First sopranos touch the upper C occasionally, second sopranos hold down the inner harmonies, and altos carry the bottom voice without ever going into uncomfortable low territory. That said, the altos have the most job security work in the piece. If your second soprano section is small or inexperienced, consider having those singers double some alto lines in rehearsal until the blend settles. I've done this at least three times and it made a noticeable difference in the final sound. There's a brief moment in the bridge where Hayes asks for a sudden pianissimo drop across all three parts. Some choirs treat this as an opportunity to whisper, which kills the tone completely. The solution is maintaining full vocal placement while reducing air pressure. It's a different skill than singing quietly and takes a few targeted rehearsals to develop. Start with it as a separate exercise before applying it to the actual music.
If you're programming this for a concert, it pairs well with either lighter holiday material or a contrasting serious piece. The arrangement runs approximately three and a half minutes depending on your tempo choices. Rehearsal time typically falls in the two to three week range for a competent middle school or junior high ensemble. High school choirs with solid sight-reading can learn it faster, but the intonation work never goes away no matter how experienced the singers are. The piece is published by Hal Leonard and widely available through music retailers and sheet music websites. It's in standard octavo format, which means it fits in any choir music folder and the page turns aren't problematic during performance. There's also a recording available through Hal Leonard's playback tracks if you need something to reference with your singers.
Get the Full Details
