RESONANCE- A Review & Feature
By David Alter

I listened to heavenly humming of 110 voices and re-discovered Largo, a symphonic movement by an old-country composer. And the negro spiritual , Goin' Home

Antonin (Anton) Dvorak surely smiled through his pitch black wraparound beard as the Resonance Women's Chorus of Boulder's voices hummed the second movement from his New World Symphony. It was one of more than a dozen renditions of courage offered the 700 listeners who came to hear Resonance.

(It later became that American negro spiritual, Goin' Home.)

Created by Sue Coffee of Lafayette, Resonance came to the end of its fifth season of singing at The First United Methodist Church in Boulder. They came together from throughout Boulder and its surrounding counties

Singing, commented one soprano, is life's dessert.

It was the culmination of two-hour weekly rehearsals lead by Artistic Director Sue Coffee, whose hands, without baton, extracted musical magic. She founded the women's community chorus in 2002 with Teri Charles of Boulder, an organizing maven - a knowledgeable expert.

The concert encompasses a large theme - courage - said Coffee,...that figures in all aspects of life. It was inspired by a line in the movie, Iron-jawed Angels, about the final push of woman's suffrage in the early part of the 20 th century.

"Women's suffrage activist Alice Paul was thrown in jail," said Coffee. "Officials wanting to get her out of the way by having her committed to a mental institution asked a psychiatrist to diagnose her as mentally ill"

His response, said Coffee, was that " courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

An introduction to Largo was delivered by Linda Wages of Boulder, whose 90-year-old father was in the audience. A forward observer in Europe during World War II, he and his men often were left near or behind German lines. While fleeing to safety, he hummed the melody, Clair de Lune - his private retreat from the unspeakable horrors of war, Linda said.

On the other side of the world in Japanese camps on Sumatra, two rained musicians created music on bits of paper, composing from memory voice arrangements of symphonic movements by Schubert and Dvorak and preludes by Chopin. Largo was one of those pieces.

And eventually the movement was given words with the title, "Goin' Home" one of many negro spirituals. And so the humming followed.

Then spoke Ro Bolen of Boulder of the civil rights movement. She quoted Bernice Johnson Reagan who said, "Songs are documents created by collective voice." Thus the Calypso Song, which drew from Harry Belefonte's Banana Boat song. The Calypso tune calls out the Mothers' Day violence when freedom riders were brutally beaten in Alabama..

Janice Shayne of Boulder recalled that 76-year-old Professor Levin Rebresceau, a holocaust survivor, sacrificed his life for students at Virginia Tech. "Professor Lebresceau's courage gave me renewed faith in the goodness of humankind, Shayne said. While reviewing music for the concert, she selected the song, Change of Heart.

" And I thought of the professor ... and something changed within me that will last me for a lifetime," she said.

"It will fill me when I'm empty and rock me when I'm low."

Mary Klages of Lafayette honored Eleanor Roosevelt, who for more than 60 years fought for human rights and social justice. It was her introduction to Beauty of Your Dreams.

A Buddhist text, the Heart Sutra of Transendent Knowledge, was the inspiration for Gate gate and brought on Jolie Bernstein'sintroduction. "This truly profound teaching proclaims that the habitual way we see the world is false," she told the audience. "Phenomena is dynamic and fluid..."

And we heard Mim Campos of Boulder remind us in her introduction to Ode to Women that women traditionally provide the connections for the human family.

Lili Christensen of Louisville told us in her introduction to Step by Step that coal miners did sing in the early days of union organizing. Courage!

The chorus will be singing again later this year. The songs will be soft and reminiscent of courage.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm...

Sue Coffee is also the founding artistic director of Sound Circle, a women's a cappella ensemble. She was artistic director of The Denver Gay Men's Chorus and received the Legacy Award from GALA Choruses for her contribution to the choral community.

Auditions for new singers will take place in early September. If you wish to audition, email or phone. Requirements are the ability to match pitch, make a strong commitment to attendance and ability to blend vocally with other voices. Music reading skills and prior experience are not required. Rehearsals are 7 to 9:30 p.m.

(303) 473-8337
resonance_chorus@yahoo.com
www.resonancechorus.org
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