Christopher O’Riley, piano Phrygian Gates is a behemoth of sorts and requires a pianist capable of considerable physical endurance and with an ability to sustain long arches of sound. Phrygian Gates is a broad monolithic arch roughly 24 minutes long which is built upon a plan that resembles the classic "tour” of the twelve keys. Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International License. These cells tend to be little upward gestures. Sometimes these waves are smooth and tranquil; sometimes their surging and stabbing figurations can be as violent as a white-water expedition. We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. As the examples from Phrygian Gates and The Chairman Dances will demonstrate, Adams does not use a consistent, readily analyzable tonal language in his works from this period. From everything I can tell, it was John Adams who first realized the implications for rhythm implicit in minimalism's alleged simplicity. in which the pianist must undulate between dyads. Phrygian Gates shows a strong influence of Minimalist procedures, and it is for sure the first piece of mine to be based on the idea of repetitive cell structure. often means something more akin to ‘diatonic collection’” because there are some exceptions. Minimalism, although an admittedly reduced and at times naive style, offered me a way out of this bind. In most cases I treat each hand as if it were operating in a wave-like manner, generating patterns and figurations that operate in continuous harmony with the other hand. Lastly, I should note in passing the formal design of Adams’s modal usage. S-1784. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. ... Adams didn't find his true path until Phrygian Gates, the minimalist piano piece written when he was just 30. They are, according to his own claims, his first compositions consisting of a coherent personal style. In the next pair (E Lydian and Phrygian) the Lydian section is slightly shorter while its Phrygian mate is proportionally longer, and so on until the tables are turned. As I thought further about what I wanted to do musically in my Hub New Music piece, I thought of John Adams’s Phrygian Gates. (In contrast, Ligeti’s piece generally features rhythms that are presto possible and  pitch sequences that are deliberately patternless, within each passage’s given constraints.). Most of piece consists of steady eighth- and 16th-note surface rhythms that often create a sense of pulse but never of beat. Phrygian Gates is a behemoth of sorts and requires a pianist capable of considerable physical endurance and with an ability to sustain long arches of sound. Adams explained that working with synthesizers caused a “diatonic conversion,” a reversion to the belief that tonality was a … At this point Adams began to experiment with electronic music, and his experiences are reflected in the writing of Phrygian Gates (1977–78), in which the constant shifting between modules in Lydian mode and Phrygian mode refers to activating electronic gates rather than architectural ones. An analysis of selected works from the 1970s (China Gates and Phrygian Gates), 1980s (Grand Pianola Music and Fearful Symmetries) and 1990s (the Violin Concerto and Century Rolls) highlights the most pervasive symmetry in each decade and shows a shift from preconceived overarching symmetries that frame entire musical structures to smaller-level symmetries … bar 201 ff.). The Phrygian mode (pronounced / ˈ f r ɪ dʒ i ə n /) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter. This particular voyage, however, takes a somewhat different route due to the exclusively modal nature of the writing. However, whereas Ligeti achieves this lack of pitch hierarchy by using the symmetrical chromatic scale, Adams achieves it by constructing his piece using repeating, static melodic cells. Phrygian Gates (1978) is a solo piano piece which has a minimalist structure and sensibility, but has a richly melodic and emotionally moving tuneful sound. There’s Phrygian Gates and China Gates, the piano pieces John Adams refers to as his Op. These cells often consist of one note per hand, but regularly contain as many as four. Some passages feature a quarter-note pulse (e.g., m. 554 ff.). Instead, whatever pitch is in the bass generally sounds most important. Tuneful and minimalist styles don't often combine together well, but Adams manages to do this with much of his works. Duration: 5 minutes, Phrygian Gates commissioned by Mack McCray. These waves are always articulated by short “pings” of sound, little signposts which mark off the smaller internal units in a ratio of roughly 3-3-2-4. Albany, TROY 038-2. In Debussy, too, though these hierarchies can be more ambiguous, they consistently operate on both local and formal levels. S-1784. November 4, 2015 by Timothy Judd John Adams has described Phrygian Gates and its shorter “companion” piece China Gates (written between 1977 and 1978) as his “Opus 1.” Built on an unrelenting sense of pulse and unfolding gradually, both pieces were influenced by the Minimalism of Terry Riley (In C), Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. Because individuals phrases often maintain a cell from their preceding phrase, because large sections of the piece maintain a steady pulse, and because Adams further instructs the performer that “no single pattern [should] ever dominate[ ] another,” it can be difficult to tell when one phrase ends and another begins. The piece, together with its smaller companion China Gates, written for the pianist Sarah Cahill, is considered by Adams to be his "opus one". Piano, Piano/Keyboard sheet music book by John Adams (1947-): G. Schirmer at Sheet Music Plus. /wp-content/uploads/2015/01/China_Gates.mp3, /wp-content/uploads/1977/09/Phrygian-Gatesmp3.mp3. 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China Gates, on the other hand, was written for young pianists and utilizes the same principles without resorting to virtuoso technical effects. Identify: Do single/simple-contour phrases work better than ones that seem like little melodies? Previous analyses have presented detailed insights in specific areas, including proportion and temporality, closure, and the roles of process and intuition. The work was funded by a grou… It too oscillates between two modal worlds, only it does so with extreme delicacy. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. In fact, the piece sounds E-centric when it opens and C#-centric in bar 44. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1986 Cassette release of "Shaker Loops / Phrygian Gates" on Discogs. The structure is in the form of a modulating square wave with one state in the Lydian mode and the other in the Phrygian mode. Phrygian Gates (1977-78) is minimalist in the sense that the main musical materials are based on a repeating cell structure (a small musical idea that can be easily repeated and built upon). John Adams Composer Weekend, Barbican, London. It was commissioned and written for the pianist Mack McCray, and first performed by him in the Hellman Hall, San Franciscoon March 17, 1978. They all in one way or another attest to Adams ' success in incorporating a range of Romantic gestures into a minimalist language, a potent combination indeed that is fully accessible to anybody yet never lapses into sentimentality. In contrast, because Adams composes his phrases out of static cells, voice leading only functions on a formal level in Phrygian Gates. In each phrase, Adams varies the length and pitch content of its constituent cells. John Adams was once described as “a Minimalist bored with Minimalism.” Even in these first mature works, written around the time Adams turned 30, unexpected disruption of process foreshadows Adams’ later music. China Gates, on the other hand, was written for young pianists and utilizes the same principles without resorting to virtuoso technical effects. I found the combination of tonality, pulsation and large architectonic structures to be extremely promising. Further, it (often) has a discernible pulse and is constructed from repeating, distinct melodic cells. Phrygian Gates requires a pianist capable of considerable physical endurance and with an ability to sustain long arches of sound. Adams’s piece interests me because his harmonic wash is modal rather than chromatic. (HL.50236310). Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Listen to Phrygian Gates, Pt. (1) John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism.