Gerhard composed Pandora in wartime Cambridge, England, between December 1942 and April 1943. It was commissioned for Europe's leading Modern Dance company, the Ballet Jooss, which had left Germany and its Essen base after Hitler's seizure of power, and had established itself, more or less precariously, in England. The score is dedicated ‘to Alice Isabella Roughton’, and uses the ensemble of two pianos with light percussion which Jooss had favoured since the earliest days in Germany and now found well suited to conditions of wartime austerity.