Where to Find Coates' Music
Naturally, you may want to explore Coates' compositions after learning of her unique body of work. I was eager to take a look at some of her scores myself. Sadly, sheet music of her compositions is not readily available for public viewing. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find more than a few of her scores online, whether for free or for purchase. A considerable portion of Coates' music is readily available to listen to however, through purchase of physical Cd's, vinyl, and through streaming platforms.
Discogs.com is like the Barnes & Noble of recorded music. Here you can purchase CDs, digital copies, vinyl records, and more from a large catalog of artists, including Gloria Coates.
In a similar manner to Discogs, Stretta Music is a sheet music store which provides an invaluable selection of instrumentation and artists. There are only two of Coates' pieces here though: Phantom (2011) for flute and piano, and String Quartet no. 1 (1973).
Spotify has no shortage of Coates' music available to those with a subscription. Most of her records which are available through Discogs are on Spotify as well, with the exceptions of At Midnight (2013), Music on Open Strings (1985), and a compilation featuring nine of her string quartets (2012)
Lastly, Naxos Records is the most accessible resource of this list. It has an extensive library of artists and music, with recordings available to stream for free at any time. These recordings are unfortunately not supplemented with sheet music, but Naxos does provide information regarding composers, lyricists, conductors, ensembles, and each individual artist involved where applicable.
Of course, these are not the only resources available to explore Coates' work, but they may be the most convenient to many. One may also find her music through Apple Music, YouTube, cross-referencing her Wikipedia page, and more. Beyond purchasing sheet music through Stretta Music, the only bits of sheet music of Coates' music I could find was through a Google Image search. Even then, the selection is very sparse.
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These few pages are fun to examine and to imagine oneself performing. I have never come across scores even remotely similar to these, especially not the page from String Quartet no. 7, Angels (2001). In a sense, it is almost like looking at a different language or dialect. I have no way to tell what is and what isn't tasteful in an interpretation, or to tell how each instrument interacts with one another in any meaningful way. I would love the opportunity to perform one of Coates' pieces someday with a chamber group to see how it physically feels to do so compared to more traditional pieces.
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Just by viewing these short excerpts, one can imagine what Coates' composition process may be like. Like one may analyze a more traditionally European piece as having harmonic 'layers', I notice there are layers or emergent patterns within these excerpts. The excerpt directly to the right, for example, seems to be built upon glissandi occurring at different periodicities. This reads as a sort of polyrhythm, but with the space between each rhythmic 'node' being filled with the glissandi rather than left open with space, which I predict must result in a sonic texture that is entirely unique each time it is performed.
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Likewise, the Angels score below depicts what many would recognize as an angel using nothing but interpretive notation. These concepts alone are not necessarily remarkable or hard to understand at face value, but they compound to create music which is much more than the sum of its parts. I find myself getting absolutely lost in Coates' refreshing minimalist style each time I listen to her music, finding new things to appreciate every time.
Excerpt from String Quartet no. 7, Angels