Performing at the Glen Ridge Congregational Church this past Sunday was the duet ‘OboeBass!’ Husband and wife Rolf Erdahl and Carrie Vecchione bill themselves as the only oboe/bass duet in the world.
Vecchione is a former Glen Ridge resident and a GRHS 1977 graduate. Many of the compositions they performed on Sunday were written especially for them since the oboe/bass repertoire is extremely limited. Compositions based on children stories and folktales were among those performed.
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Glen Ridge Community Concerts presented “OboeBass!” on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 25, at the Congregational Church, on Ridgewood Avenue.
Carrie Vecchione, a former Lincoln Street resident who graduated from Glen Ridge High School, Class of ‘77, and her husband, Rolf Erdahl, bill themselves as the only oboe/bass duo in the world.
If this is true, then there should be other oboe/bass duos because the personalities of these instruments are so different and the music so engaging, that listening one might imagine an act by Laurel and Hardy. There are certainly serious moments, but the music seems to have been born playful. True to form, the bass is fat and the oboe skinny.
Some of the compositions played on Sunday were commissioned by the couple out of necessity since there is so little music written for their instruments, only three pieces, according to Vecchione. They especially enjoyed playing established American composers. Two compositions by Stephen Foster were performed as was a variations on “Polly Wolly Doodle,” an anonymous, pre-Civil War song.
In her comments to the audience, Vecchione said the duo has been a crazy adventure for 10 years. But when they were able to have music specifically written for them, that was when their oboe/bass duo became possible. A Glen Ridge resident in the audience, Timothy Goplerud, composed a handful of compositions on the program.
The concert began with something familiar to most elementary school children: Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” This pretty much set the stage for the concert since children stories and folktales have a natural affinity for these two instruments probably because together they are so unexpected.
The Grieg selection was followed by three vignettes based on “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” a book about the adventures of a toy rabbit who is forever getting lost and being given a different name by his new owner. These were written by Goplerud for the couple. The use of a sequence of short compositions helped the instruments explore their range without one wandering off too far from the other in any one piece.
The first vignette, “Jangles Dances for Pennies,” is jazz-influenced with the bass being plucked and bowed. In fact, there was no telling what Erdahl would do next to his bass and one time stroked the wooden back of the bow against the strings. The technique, he said, was called col lego.
The second vignette was after Tulane is found by hobos. While Erdahl’s thumping bass provided the hobo’s troddening steps, the oboe was reflective, plaintive and Gershwin-influenced. Perhaps a toy rabbit does think after all as he wanders to his next adventure.
In “Down But Not Out,” Tulane has been found by a toy repairman who puts him back in shape. Erdahl does much of his work with the bow which gives the vignette a feeling of expectation without a statement coming from the oboe. There are any number of dichotomies that can be conjured from the disparity of sounds.
“Duo for Oboe and Bass,” is a 2015 composition written by Francois Rabbath, b.1931, a well-known bass player and composer.
“It’s a hard piece,” Erdahl said. “The onus is on me.”
The tone of this composition was serious, unlike the others. There was a distinct feeling of the instruments moving away and toward each other, in tandem.
Vecchione and Erdahl returned to a Goplerud composition called, “Flying Solo.”
Vecchione said Goplerud had an affinity for jazz and they asked him for a jazz composition. “Flying Solo” had five movements, each one with a different jazzy feel. The benefit of playing variations was evident here. One after the other, the listener had fresh in mind what was just played. One might think even of performances being superimposed.
About four dozen people attended the concert. During the intermission, Vecchione chatted with some like old friends, which they may have been. One woman in the audience recalled where Vecchione lived and said some of her former classmates were in the audience.
“She’s played her before,” the woman said. “This was another good, ol’ time.”
The second half began with a little Norwegian history and “Torden og Lyn,’ by Adrian Mann, b. 1949. Erdahl, who is Norwegian, said the piece came from the region where his grandmother lived.
“Torden og lyn means thunder and lightning,” he said.
He explained that the title comes from an activity. It is a dance, performed by boys wearing hats. A high-stepping dance, it includes boys kicking the hat off their partner’s head. Erdahl said the popularity of the dance has waned, but there are also fewer concussions in Norway. It was in this piece that he played his bass col legno — the wood to the strings. A contact dance, to be sure.
Vecchione said she and her husband had a long list of “to do’s.” One of them is collecting American music to play. “Stephen Foster comes to mind,” she said.
“Anadolia,” by Foster, 1826-64, is reminiscent of “Suwannee River” and Vecchione played it solo. This was a wise decision.
Another Foster song followed: “Hard Time Come Again No More.” Vecchione said the song rang a chord for everyone and recited some of the lyrics: “Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears/While we all sup sorrow with the poor/There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears/Oh Hard times come again no more.”
In this, the oboe carries the melody while the bass conveys the toil endured by the spirit. But suddenly, the bass joins the melody. It was apparent from this that what these two disparate instruments bring to the listener is an immediacy. Even the foreboding quality of the Foster parlor song is alive and in the present.
“It’s really great to be here,” Vecchione said. “This church is a distinctive landmark for me.”
She said her mother, Polly, died in November. “Her birthday is tomorrow,” she continued.
For her mother, she had Goplerud compose “American Doodle.” Vecchione said it was variations of “Polly Wolly Doodle,” a traditional song dating back to the 1840s.
“My mother didn’t like it,” she said. “I hope she forgives me. There are eight variations. See if you can keep track.”
The program ended with “Canzone Vecchione,” by Adrian Mann. It was written for Vecchione’s father.
Following the concert, Vecchione said she and her husband were involved with children’s programs in Minnesota.
“We’ve created an entire, age-specific curriculum,” she told the Glen Ridge Paper. “They children love the bass and the oboe is very evocative.”
Refreshments followed the concert.
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