China Gates (Piano solo) by John Adams

China Gates for solo piano by composer John Adams.

Piano Solo. 20th Century.

China Gates was composed by John Adams for solo piano in 1977.

John Admas wrote China Gates for young pianists and utilizes the principles (rippling of waveforms) without resorting to virtuoso technical effects. This piece oscillates between two modal worlds, but it does with extreme delicacy. In this piece, the pulse remains steady, but the mood keeps shifting. The piano eases into the opening notes and vanishes towards the end.

Listen to the piece of music here. The piece contains two interwoven piano passages that repeat themselves until a “gate” is switched and the passage changes.

• The piece is written in a minimalist style and superimposes two separate voices on top of each other, as shown in the example below.
• The right hand voice is a very steady and regular pattern of eighth notes.
• The left hand voice plays certain rhythmic patterns, that slightly change over a longer period of time.

What is unique about China Gates is that it is written as a sort of musical palindrome, meaning that the work from beginning to end is almost perfectly symmetrical.

Throughout the piece, 4 different musical modes are played:

• Ab (A flat) Mixolydian
• F Locrian
• G# (G Sharp) Aeolian
• F Lydian

In case you plan to learn this piece, don’t be deceived by the relaxed pace and minimalist structure of the notes – this is actually a difficult piece to play. You will need to learn the tricky syncopations, contrary motions of the hands on the same octave, you’ll need to make sure there are no accents or lapses, and that you always play at the same pace throughout.

The minimalist style, quite prevalent during the 70s was that music should feel as if’s drifting through time and space with freedom (something that the earlier forms of music lacked) and that change should occur very slowly through repetition. It does sound interesting when you hear it once in a while.

A Brief Introduction To John Adams' China Gates from saint reukk on Vimeo.