Juliet Palmer Photo: Supplied
Juliet Palmer writes:
“In 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War, Canadian band the Guess Who released the song ‘American Woman’. The group performed for President and Mrs. Nixon and Prince Charles at the White House. Pat Nixon requested that ‘American Woman’ be dropped from the set list.
“In recomposing American Woman, I was thinking of two wars: the Iraq War and the strange war against the body waged by the American beauty industry. The war in Iraq costs over $2 billion per week, while Americans spend more than $15 billion per year on cosmetic surgery. In 2004, nearly 12 million beauty procedures were performed in the US. In The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, Susie Orbach and Nancy Etcoff found that only two percent of women feel comfortable describing themselves as beautiful.”
Performed by members of Auckland Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Scholes at a Composer Portrait concert devoted to the music of Juliet Palmer.
Barbara Paterson (sop, keyboard), Luca Manghi (alto fl), Donald Nicholls (bass cl), Jenny Raven (perc), Miranda Adams (vln), Evgeny Lanchtchikov (dbass)
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Raye Freedman Arts Centre, Auckland, 20 October 2019
Sound engineer: Adrian Hollay
