For American composer John Adams (b. 1947), the inspiration for the solo piano work, China Gates, came on an endlessly rainy day in San Francisco during the winter of 1977. Adams recalls the gentle, hypnotic patter of the rain hitting the roof of his cottage near the Pacific Ocean. This natural counterpoint gave rise to the repetitive patterns of China Gates, a brief companion composition to Adams’ Phrygian Gates, composed during the same period.
“Gates,” a term borrowed from electronic 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 called it “an almost perfect palindrome.”
In his program note, Adams writes,
China Gates was written for young pianists and utilizes the same principles as Phrygian Gates, without resorting to virtuoso effects. It too oscillates between two modal words, only it does so with extreme delicacy. It strikes me now as a piece calling for real attention to details of dark, light and the shadows that exist between.
Recordings
- Adams: China Gates, Daniil Trifonov Deutsche Grammophon
Featured Image:” The Golden Gate Bridge refracted in rain drops acting as lenses,” photograph by Brocken Inaglory