Phrygian Gates is a piano piece written by minimalist 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 one".
It was commissioned and written for the pianist Mack McCray,[1] and first performed by him in the Hellman Hall, San Francisco on March 17, 1978.
[citation needed] The piece is written in a minimalist style, and based on a repetitive cell structure.
[3] In this way, the piece shifts following the circle of fifths, alternating between the Lydian and Phrygian mode of each key.