“They Can’t Put It Back” is a suite of three pieces for unaccompanied female voices (SSAA with occasional 2-part divisi) by Mary Simmons, an American composer. Skip ahead to 8 mins in the video below to hear the entire trilogy:
Download the text (Word document)
Download score sample (PDF, 2 pages from each movement)
The piece is about environmental degradation in the Appalachian region. The trilogy features poems by three Appalachian poets: Muriel Miller Dressler, Sarah Cornet-Hagen, and Billy Edd Wheeler.
“The Appalachian region is home to one of the oldest and most biologically diverse mountain systems on the continent. Tragically, mountaintop removal mining has already destroyed more than 500 mountains encompassing more than 1 million acres of Central and Southern Appalachia.
After the coal companies blast apart the mountaintops, they dump the rubble into neighboring valleys, where lie the headwaters of streams and rivers, like the Kanawha, Clinch, and Big Sandy. The exposed rock leaches heavy metals and other toxins that pose enormous health threats to the region’s plants and animals — and people.” – Appalachian Voices
To order a full score ($2 per copy of each movement or $6 per copy for all three), please contact Mary directly by email. As of May 2021, Mary has permission to release the second and third movements, but is still pursuing text permission to publish the first movement.