The Gates

It was my tea break—writing The Gates—to escape from diligently composing large symphonic music pursuing greater subtlety and profundity. The fun game started with inspirations from minimalism, music from Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams. I first wrote a few musical ideas with different characters. Some are smooth and melodious; others are playful and active. They spark together and interact with the music asynchronously. The different combinations and variations of these musical ideas, from augmentations and subtractions, resulting in disparate patterns and colors that create reminiscent images in a kaleidoscope.

The concept of “gates” was inspired by John Adams’ Phrygian Gates, where the pitch selection alternates between harmony within Phrygian fields and other chords. Applying a similar gating technique, I alternate between major and minor pitch fields. The musical ideas and voices were also turned on and off at different moments. Additionally, I also switch between the notion of musical minimal and non-minimal. That is, to switch between motivic fragments and prolonged melodies, module repetitions and dramatic developments, mechanical patterns and emotional sentimentality.

I found many new potentials in the blurred boundary between the aesthetics of minimalism and non-minimalism here in this piece: using compositional ideas and techniques inspired by minimalism composers, and combining it with my own musical form, outside of minimalism context. After all, what is most interesting about this music is perhaps not the profound meaning it can convey but the music itself. I wish The Gates to be a simple and cheerful experience for my listener to enjoy.

The Gates was originally written in 2019 for six performers, it was revised in January 2021 for chamber orchestra.

—Yanchen Ye

Premiere performance, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI. Michigan Symphony Orchestra & Francisco Fernandez Morales, conductor. July 23, 2021.