Phrygian Gates is a piano piece written by Minimal music composer John Adams in 1977–1978. The piece, together with its smaller companion China Gates, written for the pianist Sarah Cahill, is considered by Adams to be his "Opus number one".
Overview
The piece is written in a
minimalism style, and based on a repetitive cell structure. Simultaneously, Adams' desire to move away from the conventional techniques of minimalism is noticeable. The composition is set in the
Phrygian mode, and cycles through half the keys throughout its roughly 25 to 30 minute duration, starting in A Lydian (four sharps), followed by A Phrygian (one flat), then E Lydian (five sharps) and E Phrygian (no flats), etc.
In this way, the piece shifts following the circle of fifths, alternating between the Lydian and Phrygian mode of each key.
As claimed by Adams, it is "in the form of a modulating square wave with one state in the Lydian mode and the other in the Phrygian mode". Gradually, the amount of time spent in the Lydian shortens and shifts more to the Phrygian. The "Gates" in the title is an allusion from the electronic music gates, a term for rapidly shifting modes.
Recordings
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John Adams - Complete Piano Music, Ralph van Raat (Naxos Records) 2007
External links
