Jeff Fallen: Yangtze River Journey (Audio)

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Michelle Kwon's Quartet performs Jeff Fallen's Yangtze Journey at International Rivers' Day of Action for Rivers event on March 14, 2011 A quartet performs Jeff Fallen’s Yangtze Journey at International Rivers’ Day of Action for Rivers event on March 14, 2011.

I was moved to compose a musical work about the decline of the Yangtze River from its natural state due to a major reservoir project – Three Gorges Dam. International Rivers was kind enough to offer a performance of my work at an International Day of Action for Rivers gathering in Berkeley.

Many years ago we made a canoe journey down a portion of the Trinity River in Texas. From Hearne south on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, there were a few, small rapids. In the country, we saw a few shacks along the banks where people lived and fished for food. The river is now polluted for much of its length. Fish or water from it should not be consumed. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there were people who imagined that the Trinity could be a waterway to make Dallas an inland port – this never happened. Too impractical and too expensive.

Houston had the ship channel from Galveston and goods could be trucked or railed out. Damming rivers for reservoirs to collect water for human use is an invention to save time and money – a modern convenience that is more beneficial to corporations and governments than it is for individuals and nature. In Texas, reservoir lakes are polluted by motorboats, human waste and trash. Water in a reservoir is partially stagnant. Reservoir water requires wastewater treatment plants where chemicals are added to purify the water. Surely many of those chemicals are toxic. Reservoirs block the natural flow of rivers and streams.

As a young boy, I enjoyed fly fishing in free-flowing mountain rivers and eating stream-caught rainbow trout cooked on a campfire. Perhaps one day, what is best for people and the whole of nature will be the deciding factors in the decision making process regarding rivers, streams and natural lakes.

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