Essay

Musician and professor Trevor Weston searches for "exotic" sounds and gets a lesson in Gershwin and Gullah culture.

Music composition has always been an interactive process for me. I am often inspired by the sounds of my environment. Living in Charleston for the last eight years has influenced my music greatly, but my interest in the sounds of the Lowcountry began five years before moving to Charleston.

In 1995, I presented a lecture in Italy on the life and music of George Gershwin. While preparing this lecture, I came across some background information about the opera Porgy and Bess that I did not know. First, that Gershwin attributed the creation of jazz to the development of rhythms and themes from Africa by African-Americans, and secondly that Gershwin knew that Gullah culture represented the strongest retention of African culture in the United States. I also learned that Gershwin spent time in the Lowcountry to learn from Gullah culture in order to compose his famous opera. This last point immediately sparked my interest in music of the Lowcountry. If Gershwin, a composer of international fame, thought that he could learn something in the Charleston area, then so could I.

My first trip to Charleston finally occurred in 1999 to interview for my current job at the College of Charleston. I did not expect to hear performances of Gullah music during this visit, but I also did not know that the music of the spoken Gullah language was so similar to my mother's Barbadian accent. The experience was striking. In looking for "exotic" sounds in the Lowcountry I had actually found a very familiar sound world.

After moving to Charleston, I researched the connection between Charleston and Barbados, and I also found a great recording of traditional Gullah choral groups from Johns Island, Been in the Storm So Long. The intensity of the singing and the rhythmic complexity of the cross rhythms created by foot stomping and hand clapping patterns demonstrated strong retentions of the West African musical ideal. These rhythmic patterns are also similar to Calypso and Reggae music. Inspired by this sound world, I composed three important commissions based on Gullah music and culture: The People Could Fly; O Daedalus, Fly Away Home; and Messages. (Equally inspired by Jonathan Green's painting "Seeking.")

My original search for "exotic" sounds in the Lowcountry became a lesson in cultural history. I learned that my cultural exploration of Gullah music was actually a personal journey of rediscovery.