How it Happened (2010)
Juliet Palmer (Canada), with text by Thomas King
For alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion, conductor and narrator
Composer's note:
The text is from Thomas King's 1993 novel Green Grass, Running Water:
"In the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water."
"But where did all the water come from?
Throughout Thomas King's novel the character of the trickster Coyote reappears, hopelessly bamboozled, trying to learn what really happened when the world began. Who knows the Real Story? Coyote would like to think he does, but then there's Coyote's Dream - "gets loose and runs around. Makes a lot of noise". Coyote's Dream has his own idea about things: "I'm in charge of the world". By the end of the piece, you'll be wondering where all that water came from... J.P.
Juliet Palmer moved from New Zealand to New York in 1990 to work with composer-performer Meredith Monk, completing her PhD at Princeton University in 1999. Based in Toronto, her music has been featured around the world, from New York's Bang On A Can Festival to Italy's Angelica Festival and Australia's Adelaide Festival. Performers of her music include the Penderecki String Quartet, Trio Fibonacci, the Gryphon Trio, Toca Loca, Continuum, l'Orchestre Metropolitain conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Tapestry New Opera Works (Canada); Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France); Fontanamix (Italy); Piano Circus (UK); California EAR Unit and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA); and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Juliet co-founded the interdisciplinary collective urbanvessel in 2006. Their new work Voice-Box, for four women vocalists who box, is a Harbourfront Fresh Ground commission and premieres in November. Palmer co-directed and scored the animated short Soaring, Roaring, Diving - "Best Experimental Film" in the 2009 Brooklyn International Film Festival.
