Acapella / Next Sing
Here I plan to host arrangements I write for Next Sing (or any other acapella groups in the future). If you are part of my group, the version of the score posted here is always the most up to date version (i.e. the "correct" one).
Fall 2025 - It's Quiet Uptown (from HAMILTON)
Artist: Lin-Manuel Miranda, arr. Eric Zhan
Difficulty: Beginner / Intermediate
Parts: SATB + Solo Voice
Length: 4m30s
What a hauntingly beautiful song. Alexander, having publicized his own infidelity in his relationship and lost his son Philip in a duel, attempts to win back the only remaining person in his life: Eliza. We hear their immense grief and his desperate pleads for forgiveness, as a haunting arpeggiated ostinato unrelentingly trickles down like tears. I especially love hearing the ensemble throughout the number... really, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius for capturing the feeling of relief that accompanies being forgiven so perfectly.
Forgiveness, can you imagine?
Fall 2025 - Never Gonna Let You Go
Artist: Sergio Mendes, arr. Eric Zhan
Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced
Parts: SATB + Solo Voice (Male) + Solo Voice (Female)
Length: 4m35s
No, it's not that song. This is instead an 80s hit by Brazilian bandleader Sergio Mendes, and spent four weeks topping the Billboard charts. Legendary stuff, especially for a song containing nineteen key changes! What in the world? (Apparently Rick Beato even made a video on the harmonical complexity of it all.) Would a song like this released today become as mainstream... I unfortunately doubt it. Also, can we talk about how Joe Pizzulo (singer) reaches an incredibly high Db5 and mostly sings higher than the female lead Leeza Miller? Completely inhuman sorcery.
I'm never gonna let you go, I'm gonna hold you in my arms forever...
Spring 2025 - blue x Until I Found You
Artists: yung kai and Stephen Sanchez, arr. Eric Zhan and Freya Edholm
Difficulty: Intermediate
Parts: SATB
Length: 3m10s
I think I've earned as a reputation as the guy who knows only songs in 6/8... I guess it's deserved. To date, blue is still my favorite song of all time. The artist has mentioned in interviews that he was inspired by C-drama love stories, and I can definitely see and feel that influence. It screams of longing, and the unique melodic line at the start of the chorus (jumping down a fifth) feels almost like a sigh of defeat or daydreaming about could have been. Doing a mashup with another song came naturally after the realization that both songs share a similar "shape" to the chorus. I will admit I got a bit lucky... I didn't actually try putting both choruses together simultaneously until I was over halfway done with the other sections of the arrangement. Had it not worked out, I'm unsure what I would've done.
I was lost within the darkness, but then I found her... I found you