Saugatuck Symphony

With the Wabash running a close second, the most musically celebrated of U. S. rivers is probably the misnamed Swanee.* But during the past year suburban Connecticut's sluggish Saugatuck has meandered into the national consciousness. Last March the arty town of Westport, on its banks, got into an argument with itself about whether or not to become "the U. S. Salzburg" (TIME, March 28).

And last year Bridgeport Hydraulic Co., which supplies water to a large part of southwestern Connecticut, proposed to dam the Saugatuck, throwing it completely out of kilter. Local patriots rose to the defense of their river, with "Save the Saugatuck" their watchword. To defend groves threatened by the utility's axmen, women residents of the valley threatened to lash themselves to the trees. While Writers Stuart Chase and Deems Taylor protested, Fiddler Jascha Heifetz gave a "Save the Saugatuck" concert, devoted its proceeds to the cause.

Among the most fervent saviors of the Saugatuck is bushy-headed Composer Edwin Gerschefski, who lives with his wife at Meriden, Conn., hard by the threatened river. Broadcast last week on Conductor Howard Barlow's CBS "Everybody's Music" program was Composer Gerschefski's contribution to the great Connecticut cause: a "Save the Saugatuck" Symphony. Subtitles of the flashily orchestrated symphony's four rather noisy movements: 1) Natural Ruggedness; 2) Robot Controlled Precision without Escape; 3) Natural Flow; 4) Dynamite Accomplished Perversion and Artificiality of Every Description.

*Stephen Foster, U. S. composer of the song Way Down upon the Swanee River (properly called Old Folks at Home), had never seen Florida's Suwannee River about which his song was written, got the misspelled name from an old map. Once the song was written it was impossible to correct the spelling, because the tune calls for a word of two syllables, and the real Suwannee has three.

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