Voice of the Everglades
might be described as a spoken documentary
set to music, the subject being the
preservation of the sub-tropical waterscape
of Florida. You could perhaps think
of it as a kind of conservationist Peter
and the Wolf. Stylistically though
it is closer to the narration genre
of which Copland’s Lincoln Portrait
is a good example. At first
I wondered why topographically inappropriate
visions of spectacular wooded mountains
involuntarily came to my mind’s eye.
Then I realised that I was being triggered
by memories of Copland’s music evoking
Appalachian country, and Trevor Jones’
music on the soundtrack of The Last
of the Mohicans, magnificently filmed
in the same part of the world. The
means by which Heitzeg introduces specific
Everglades connotations to his score
are to incorporate nature sounds peculiar
to the area such as the recorded vocalisations
of Manatees, and percussive sounds made
from the bones of the animals.
Be warned that the
work lasts 17 minutes and that is all
there is on the CD. 10% of the proceeds
from sales go to The Friends of the
Everglades, the organisation that
the indomitable Marjory Stoneman Douglas
helped form over half a century ago.
It is her words that supply the narration,
taken from her influential book, The
Everglades: River of Grass (1947),
together with Voice of the River.
Heitzeg’s work is a specific tribute
to her and her tireless work in attempting
to preserve the last wilderness of its
type in North America. Her prose has
a poetic ring in its use of imagery.
This is a considerable advantage and
adds to the impact of the piece. The
narrator is Clyde Butcher, a distinguished
Florida photographer who has also worked
in support of the cause. At the premiere
of the work in Florida in November 2000,
Butcher’s images of the Everglades were
projected as a backdrop behind the orchestra.
Heitzeg is known for
his concern for social and environmental
issues as well as his sensitivity to
nature themes. His music reflects this
and is likely, as I imply above, to
be accessible to a wide audience. In
describing it I can do no worse than
quote from the unsigned note in the
booklet:
"Voice of the
Everglades interweaves heroic fanfares
... and lyrical melodies, as in the
elegant, recurring "Marjory Stoneman
Douglas" theme and the bittersweet
"River of Grass" theme. Here,
the moods and the sounds of the Everglades
are evoked: flute and clarinet play
soaring lines in canon evoking turkey
vultures in flight; violins play a fluid
repeating pattern with the harp and
celesta signifying the river of Grass
itself; violas emulate insects by tapping
their fingers on the wood of their instruments
and percussionists shake actual sawgrass
bundles and play rainsticks and sea
shells."
Steve Heitzeg and Stone
Circle Music have, in recording the
work, taken a leaf out of Naxos’s book
and gone to East Europe; in this case,
to the Czech Republic. The Moravian
Philharmonic under Joel Eric Suben make
a convincing case for the work.
The battle for the
Everglades is by no means won and there
are still a number of forces, both commercial
and public, conspiring to eat away at
this precious nature reserve and its
threatened wildlife. It is heartening
that this conservationist, campaigning
CD has come out at a time when there
is such widespread global concern about
the USA’s negative attitude to sustainability
and related matters. The signals sent
out by the current Administration through
its refusal to cooperate on the Kyoto
Agreement are unmistakable. At least
Voice of the Everglades is a
small signal that there are people who
care about these things.
John Leeman
Stoneman Douglas 
