Family Picnic 2008
Duration: 7:30
Instrumentation: Bb Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano/Electronics
Premiere: February 26, 2018 // Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM)
Premiere performer: unheard-of//ensemble (Ford Fourqurean, clarinet; Matheus Souza, violin; So Sugiyama, cello; Daniel Anastasio, piano/electronics)
Publisher: A-Town Publications (ASCAP) © 2018
Family Picnic 2008 was commissioned by the unheard-of//ensemble.
Album: Dialogues // I Care If You Listen Track Premiere // Listen HERE
Program Note:
“Unbanking” is a marketing term created for ads and other creative materials to convince customers that a bank does not identify with typical and frustrating banking processes. In Family Picnic 2008, a third-party unbanker-bot injects itself into the world of the performers, permeating the musical texture of the work, interacting with the players, and engaging in typical and frustrating marketing practices. Family Picnic 2008 is inspired by the generosity of large banks.
—Erin Rogers (2017)
Reviews:
“Erin Rogers’ commentary on the invasion of big banking into modern life in the late 2000s. The listener is bombarded with both recorded information and percussive sounds from the quartet, a powerful statement on modern life under capitalism. An especially nice touch is a voice saying “middle class,” and another voice laughing in response, and while it is a somewhat depressing reality created in the work, it also sounds incredibly fun to perform.”
—Katie Heilman, The Sybaritic Singer [Full article]
“My favorite piece is probably the witty Family Picnic 2008 by saxophonist Erin Rogers, which was “Inspired by the generosity of large banks” and features the sardonic use of what sounds like voiceovers from advertising and news.
—Jeremy Shatan, An Earful [Full article]
“Family Picnic 2008″ (Erin Rogers) uses spoken motifs mixed seamlessly with New Music instrumental contrapuntal klangfarben–and some interestingly variegated spoken-sung-played events, each having a sectional impact I guess you could say. It is about large banks!”
—Grego Applegate Edwards, Classical-Modern