Es war einmal was written in 2021 and 2022 for Kate Ledger, to whom it is dedicated. She premiered it in the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, Leeds University on 14th February 2023. The music is based on 21 folk-tales (all the ones that begin ?es war einmal?) from the first, hand-written collection made by the Grimm brothers and begins as a syllabic transcription of the original German text before gradually developing its own syntax.