For American composer John Adams (b. 1947), the inspiration for the solo piano work, China Gates, got here on an endlessly wet day in San Francisco in the course of the winter of 1977. Adams recollects the light, hypnotic patter of the rain hitting the roof of his cottage close to the Pacific Ocean. This pure counterpoint gave rise to the repetitive patterns of China Gates, a short companion composition to Adams’ Phrygian Gates, composed throughout the identical interval.
“Gates,” a time period borrowed from digital music, refers to moments when there are abrupt shifts in modes. (China Gates inhabits the G-sharp Aeolian, A-flat Mixolydian, F Lydian, and F Locrian modes). Noting the work’s symmetry, the composer has known as it “an nearly good palindrome.”
In his program word, Adams writes,
China Gates was written for younger pianists and makes use of the identical ideas as Phrygian Gates, with out resorting to virtuoso results. It too oscillates between two modal phrases, solely it does so with excessive delicacy. It strikes me now as a bit calling for actual consideration to particulars of darkish, mild and the shadows that exist between.
Recordings
Featured Picture:” The Golden Gate Bridge refracted in rain drops appearing as lenses,” {photograph} by Brocken Inaglory
