Remains of a Permian Gas Station

Alan Mackwell

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String Trio

2021

27 min.

Program Notes: Remains of a Permian Gas Station, which won a BMI Student Composer Award in 2022 and 2023 American Prize, is a string trio inspired by an abandoned gas station in West Texas. Through its eight movements, Remains of a Permian Gas Station explores themes of degradation through its structure while sonically simulating the gas station’s deteriorating interior; promises of musical symmetry are inevitably corroded, recurring musical ideas are twisted before being left for dead, leaving space for strange, organic ideas to spring from the cracks. The piece, like the gas station it takes its inspiration from, urges forward from the exploitative systems that once defined it and finds roots in decay.
Ensemble Name: Annie Kim, Anna Griffis, Emmanuel Feldman