Hi, this is Sarah Quartel. And I am here talking to British composer, singer-songwriter,
and conductor, Jenny Mahler. Hi, Jenny.
Hi, Sarah.
Hi. Jenny is going to have three new compositions
released with Oxford University Press. And I am very excited that I got to act as guest editor
for Jenny's new pieces. Jenny, can you tell us a bit about your musical life and your career?
So I'm in the Cotswolds currently, which is in West Oxfordshire, and that's where I grew up as
well. I went to my local school and had Saturdays at a music school in Oxfordshire, which was, you
know, all formed this great foundation for loving music. And then after finishing school, I followed
my parents back to their roots and my mum is from the northeast of England, so I went and studied at
the university there in Newcastle. And there was amazing opportunity to go to Italy. And so I had
a year there training in opera and piano (not that I would call myself an opera singer!), but
it was still an amazing opportunity to sing with one of those opera teachers. And then yeah, and
then after that I went to Copenhagen University where it was all very practical hands on music,
very choir focused. And yeah, that was where I really started developing a big passion for choir.
So you are a singer yourself. And I always have directors say to me 'we can tell when choral music
is written by singers because they understand the voice. They understand how singers need support,
and how melodic lines can flow so well'. But these songs that we've got released with
Oxford University Press, you wrote as a singer, songwriter yourself, which has a different sort of
quality than purposed first-of-all choral writing, but you've taken these gorgeous songs, 'The Tide',
'The Compass', and 'Come Alive', and arranged them for upper voice
choir. What sorts of things did you have to keep in mind when you set out to like, just transform
these pieces from something you did and performed yourself, either solo or with small group,
to something that choirs will be able to sing? So, a key thing I had to bear in mind, was
that not everyone's an alto! So I was arranging basically for my own voice. And so lots of
sopranos do actually like singing those G's and those A's, so I spent a lot of the early
stages just transposing and focusing on raising pitches,
which was an interesting thing for 'The Compass', which had some really low notes,
but then it also had some quite high notes. So that was an interesting
way of trying to pull that up and still make it just as varied and interesting melodically.
And then there were some other things. I mean, being a pianist,
there was a few things that were like simplified and made easier that I've just been playing at the
piano, and you know, my little finger’s working away or something like that. And actually,
there's no need to make it that complicated. Let's just strip it back. So that process was quite
interesting. And then you were really good at picking out things that you liked,
like crossing over of hands was really fun thing to do as a pianist. And so that there
was a bit of that already in 'The Tide'. But that got definitely threaded in even more so.
So you've gone from these pieces being in your hands at the piano and your voice as
you're singing them and performing them, to now they're available for other choirs to sing.
What kinds of choirs do you think will really love these pieces and pick them up?
Um, so I think they'll appeal to youth choirs and student choirs.
I was writing these songs whilst in my early 20s. And I was writing about things that I was
going through...they were things that really meant something to me, but I think a lot of people are
going through similar things and similar big changes. And they were just so fun to sing. I
was singing them with small groups and bands and things. So I think definitely young people, but
more latterly, I've been singing them with older people as well. And I think,
and folky groups, all sorts of things. They've got fun aspects to them, they're definitely pieces
that you can take and make your own depending on what kind of group is accessible to you.
So I think, you know, I think they'll appeal to lots of different upper voice groups and choirs.