Gershwin- Heifetz: An Exploration of Jascha Heifetz’s Transcriptional Music

Abstract

This paper examines Jascha Heifetz’s transcriptions of George Gershwin’s music as a significant case study in the cross-cultural fusion of European classical performance tradition and early twentieth-century American popular music. Following his immigration to the United States in 1917, Heifetz—already established as a virtuoso of the highest order—increasingly incorporated adapted short works into his recital programs, responding both to the technological advancements in recording and to the aesthetic preferences of American audiences. Through quantitative analysis of his performance history, program reconstruction, and close musical examination of selected transcriptions from Porgy and Bess, this study demonstrates that Heifetz’s arrangements were not mere novelty pieces but deliberate artistic statements that challenged the perceived boundaries between “highbrow” and “lowbrow” music. In particular, his innovative use of portamento combined with tremolo bowing in “My Man’s Gone Now” reveals a direct assimilation of jazz vocal techniques into violin idiom—a stylistic choice that was both technically daring and expressively compelling. Heifetz’s lifelong dedication to Gershwin’s music, documented from his attendance at the Rhapsody in Blue premiere through his final concert tours, underscores his conviction that American folk and jazz tunes possessed genuine artistic merit. Ultimately, Heifetz’s transcriptional oeuvre represents a pioneering model of musical hybridity, wherein classical performance practice was expanded and enriched through engagement with indigenous American musical idioms, offering lasting insights into the dynamics of cultural assimilation and innovation in twentieth-century performance.