UNVEILING THE SIGNIFIERS OF RAIN IN JOHN ADAMS'S CHINA GATES.

While previous scholarship has focused on the close relationship between John Adams's pieces, China Gates and Phrygian Gates, this paper offers an alternative interpretation of China Gates based on Adams's recent revelation that the piece was inspired by an endless winter rainstorm that beat down on his cottage. This paper utilizes a two-part methodology: musical elements are analyzed first using theoretical tools, after which I adopt a semiotic framework based on cognitive theories of cross-domain conceptual blending to demonstrate how these musical elements signify rain through symmetry, phasing, parsimonious voice-leading, as well as pitch-class and set-class repetition. In this paper, I unveil the analogical processes by which the physical phenomenon of rain is represented by musical features and illustrate the action of cross-domain mapping in constructing a conceptual blend. I argue that in producing a sonic analog for rain, China Gates suggests a narrative tension between consistency and dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]