Music

In his novel Bulgakov indicates various musical themes accompanying and colouring the action. He often describes these themes as if he was giving director's instructions for the musical score the reader should imagine. Sometimes he limits himself to a vague description of the mood by describing the genre or the composer, and sometimes he's very specific.

Aida
Giuseppe Verdi

"О, боги, боги!" - "Oh, gods, gods!" This exclamation appears ten times in the book, as a leidmotiv. According to some sources Bulgakov would have found it in the opera Aida written by Giuseppe Verdi (1831-1901). He loved this opera very much and quoted it often. While unraveling the libretto written by Antonio Ghislanzoni (1824-1893), I indeed found a text with similarities. It's the last stanza of Scene I in the first act

Numi, pietà del mio soffrir!
Speme non v'ha pel mio dolor.
Amor fatal, tremendo amor,
Spezzami il cor, fammi morir!
Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! ecc.

Oh gods, have pity on my suffering!
There is no hope for my sorrow.
Fatal love, terrible love,
break my heart, make me die!
Oh gods, have pity on my suffering! etc.

The first words of Pilate in the novel are: "О боги, боги, за что вы наказываете меня?" - "Oh gods, o gods, why do you punish me?". Later in the book this exclamation is repeated nine times, as a leidmotiv which sometimes is said by a character, sometimes by the narrator.

Numi pietà del mio soffrir - Giuseppe Verdi
Choir and Orchestra of the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, Brussels
Numi pietà del mio soffrir - Giuseppe Verdi
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Faust
Charles Gounod

In chapter 7 Woland meets Styopa saying: "Here I am!". Bulgakov has once considered this exclamation as a possible title for The Master and Margarita. It's what Mephistopheles, the devil in the opera written bt Charles Gounod (1818-1893), exclaims when he appears in front of Faust : "Me voici!". According to Bulgakov's sister Nadezhda, Mikhail had a picture of the bass Sibiryakov on his desk. Comic strip lovers know this opera very well because of the Juwel Song - "Ah! je ris de me voir, si belle en ce miroir" ("Ah! I laugh to see how lovely I look in this mirror!"), the favourite aria of Bianca Castafiore

Me Voici! - Charles Gounod
Wiener Staatsoper Orchester und Chor

Jevgeni Onegin
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In chapter 4 Ivan chases Woland and his gang accompanied by "the hoarse roar" of the polonaise from the opera Evgeny Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovski (1840-1893). This opera is based on the homonymic story written by Alexander Pushkin. The libretto was written by Modest Ilyich Tschaikovski (1850-1916), the composer's brother. Bulgakov describes the first scene of the third act of this opera, in which Onegin meets the prince Gremin. Geremin was married to Tatyana, with whom Onegin had flirted himself.

Jevgeni Onegin - Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovski
Polonaise - Act 3 - Scene 1

Славное море, священный Байкал
Folk song

In chapter 7 of the novel you can read how the staff of the affiliate of the Commission on Spectacles and Entertainment of the Lighter Type in Vagankovsky Lane are having an unquiet day and, in some kind of mass hypnosis they start singing together a well-known exile song about the Baikal Lake in Siberia. This song was very popular among the forced labour crew in the Soviet era. The Russian name is Славное море, священный Байкал (Slavnoye more, sviyashchenny Baikal) or Glorious sea, sacred Baikal, and you can listen to it here in the version of Maxim Mikhailnov.

Славное море, священный Байкал - Folk song
Version of Maxim Mikhailnov
Славное море, священный Байкал - Folk song
Fragment from the TV-serie of Maciej Wojtyszko

The readers of the English Michael Glenny translation may wonder why the song Glorious sea, sacred Baikal is presented here. Because Glenny was not very accurate in his translation of this scene. He replaced Glorious sea, sacred Baikal unashamedly by Эй ухнем (Ey Ukhnem) or The Song of the Volga Boatsmen, also known as The Song of the Volga Burlak. That's another well known Russian folk song about the suffering of the people de diepste ellende van het tsarenregime. In 1941 behaalde de bewerking van Glenn Miller de nummer 1 positie in de Amerikaanse hitlijsten als The Song of the Volga Boatmen, maar het is niet het liedje dat Bulgakov beschrijft.

Hallelujah
Vincent Youmans

This song, written by the American composer Vincent Youmans (1898-1946), appears three times in the novel. The first time it is playes by a jazz band in Griboedov, the second time is when professsor Kuzmin hears the music coming from his daughter's room, and the third time it is played on Woland's ball. It was one of the first songs Youmans ever made. He wrote in on a marine training and it was performed for the first time by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) as a march. The lyrics written by Leo Robin (1900-1984) and Clifford Grey (1887-1941), contain the words "Satan lies a waitin' and creatin' skies of grey (skies of grey), but hallelujah, hallelujah helps to shoo the clouds away!" Youmans introduced Hallelujah! in Hit the Deck (1927) a broadway musical with Stella Mayhew, which was filmed in 1955 with Jane Powell, Tony Martin and Debbie Reynolds. Youmans wrote also the musical No, No, Nanette (1925) with the songs Tea for Two and I Want to Be Happy.

Hallelujah - Vincent Youmans
Version of Ellie Fitzgerald
Hallelujah - Vincent Youmans - Dance in Griboedov
Fragment from the TV-series of Vladimir Bortko
Hallelujah - Vincent Youmans - Dance in Griboedov
Fragment from the film of Yuri Kara

His Excellency
Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky

Chapter 12 describes the stage performance of Woland and his gang in the Variety Theatre which, after the exposure of Arkadi Sempleyarov's secret love affair, ends in complete chaos. On Behemoth's command the orchestra hacks out some incredible march with "rollicking words".

The rollicking words are inspired by a song from a vaudeville written in 1839 by Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky (1805-1860). The title of this piece was Лев Гурыч Синичкин, или Провинциальная дебютантка or Lev Gurych Sinichkin, or a Provincial Debutante. It's the story of an older actor who wants to offer a leading role in the theatre to his young and talented daughter. But the powerful primadonna of the company, an awful character with a wide network of relations, resists to it. After some heroic efforts and amusing misunderstandings the old man's dream comes true, but the star actress causes scandal with the high protector. The play was performed on stage from 1924 to 1931 in the Moscow Vakhtangov theatre on the Arbat, close to Zoya's apartment from Bulgakov's own play.

In 1974 there was made a TV-movie of this vaudeville - Лев Гурыч Синичкин (Lev Gurych Sinichkin). It was directed by Alexander Belinsky (1928) and the main characters were played by Nikolai Trofimov and Galina Fedotova.

Het liedje Zijne excellentie dat Bulgakov in De meester en Margarita beschrijft klinkt niet exact hetzelfde als in de vaideville. De zogenaamde gewaagde woorden van de marsmuziek klinken als volgt - bovenaan vindt u de originele woorden van Dmitri Lenskii, onderaan de bewerking die Bulgakov ervan maakte:

The song His Excellency in the original vaudeville doesn't sound exactly like Bulgakov describes it in The Master and Margarita. The rollicking words of this march sound as follows - on top you can read the original lyrics of Dmitry Lensky, and next the adaptation Bulgakov made of it:

Original
(Russian)

 Original
(translation Kevin Moss)
Его превосходительство
Зовет ее своей
И даже покровительство
Оказывает ей.

 His Excellency
calls her his own
and even patronage
renders to her.
Bulgakov's version
(Russisch)

 Bulgakov's version
(Translation Pevear/ Volokhonsky)
Его превосходительство
Любил домашних птиц
И брал под покровительство
Хорошеньких девиц!!!		 His Excellency reached the stage
Of liking barnyard fowl.
He took under his patronage
Three young girls and an owl!!!

 

His Excellency - Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky
De march in a fragment from the film version of Alexander Belinsky (1974)
His Excellency - Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky
De march in a fragment from the TV-series of Vladimir Bortko (2005)

Queen of Spades
Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovski

Nikanor Ivanovich's dream in chapter 15 fades out when out and there is darkness for a while, and in it a nervous tenor is heard singing from far away. The text is an aria of the character Hermann from the opera Пиковая дама (Pikovaya Dama) or Queen of Spades written by composer Pjotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, for which the libretto was written by his brother Modest Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, just like they did for Evgeny Onegin, the other opera based on a text of Aleksandr Pushkin

There are, however, modifications compared to Pushkin's original story. They concern the characters and their relations. The most important change in the story is the fact that the main character Hermann spends his last years in an hospital in Pushkin's story, while in Tchaikovsky's opera he commits suicide.

Tchaikovsky worked on the opera from January 1890 in Florence until June in Frolovskoye, and on December 7 of that year it was premiered in the Mariinsky Theatre of Saint-Petersburg.

Queen of Spades - Alexander Pushkin
Text of Alexander Pushkin in Russian
Queen of Spades - Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky
Interludium from the opera

камаринская (Kamarinskaja)
Folk song

At Satan’s ball Margarita sees polar bears playing concertinas and dancing the Kamarinsky on a platform. The камаринская (Kamarinskaya) is a Russian song and dance with a short repeated tune and rather ribald words. When the kamarinskaya is sung and danced, the right steps are not the dancers’ main concern. Grotesque steps, shrugs of the shoulders, occasionally ugly and revolting body movements - everything is allowed.

камаринская - Folk song
Instrumental version