Terry Riley

“Barbary Coast 1955”

1. I felt extremely honored and excited when Johnny Gandesman asked me to write him something for solo violin...I chose his 5 string one which gives it the range of the viola.

2. Having nothing particular in mind I began.

3. First I wrote a piece based on a poem by Gary Snyder outlining what every good poem should consist of. Rejected that.

4. Next I wrote a piece on a beautiful rhyming poem by Michael McClure. Rejected that.

5. Then I figured out I was trying to write about my impressions of San Francisco of the 1950s...thus the title Barbary Coast which was then a bunch of seedy bars and strip joints located on the southern downhill slopes of North Beach.

6. Then I came up with an attractive South American-themed melody that might have found itself drifting into the weed-scented room of a Beat poet from a house down the street.

7. Then I wrote a mystical counter theme with double stops that gave Johnny cramps in his arms and hands after a few minutes.

8. I then revised that section with the double stops to make it more playable but when Johnny played the revision for me I did not like it.

9. I then revised the section with the double stops into a mystical stripped-down version all played in harmonics.

10. I decided the South American-themed opening was too short and made it 4 times longer.

11. I rewrote the ending 3 times.

—Terry Riley 

”Barbary Coast 1955” was generously commissioned by Arts & Letters, University of California Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)