Rite of Swing: Stravinsky, Woody Herman, and the Ebony Concerto

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the historic collaboration between classical music’s preeminent, cosmopolitan twentieth century composer, Igor Stravinsky, and American big band auteur, Woody Herman. Emblematic of a nascent artistic cross-fertilization at the dawn of postwar "postmodernism," the Ebony Concerto’s fusion of "serious" music and American jazz prefigured contemporary discourse concerning "high" and "low" culture, elite and popular expressive modes, and music as a site of contestation, wherein attempts at "top down" cultural definition are opposed by demotic values signifying democratic thought and action. Of particular importance to the first-hand, authoritative nature of this account is its telling in the words of those involved, most notably, the late Woody Herman. Participants’ interviews with the author give voice and authenticity, rather than interpretation and mystification, to a unique dialogical achievement in American music and culture.