BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA AND THE

MUSIC OF IGOR STRAVINSKII1

Ksana Blank
Three characters in The Master and Margarita bear the names of
famous composers: the editor Berlioz, the director of the Variety
Theater Rimskii, and the head of the psychiatric clinic Professor
Stravinskii. Though Bulgakovs references to many nineteenth-century
composers have been remarked upon, his allusion to Igor Stravinskii
(1882 1971) has not received much attention from the novels
commentators.2 This deficiency is probably caused by the general
opinion according to which the writers musical tastes were formed
exclusively by the classical legacy of the past. Thus Ia. Platek asserts:
,
, ,
.
.3
(Bulgakovs time is the time of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Ravel and
Stravinskii, Schoenberg and Webern; it is a time of stormy musical
cataclysms. They do not echo on the pages of Bulgakovs prose.)

However, Bulgakovs mention of Stravinskii in The Master and

Margarita is hardly accidental. This name appears in the 1932-34 drafts
of the novelin the scene that laid the foundation for the chapter A
Duel Between Professor and Poet.4 Although Stravinskiis name does
not figure in the analogous episode in the earlier (1929-31) drafts, his
music does. In this scene, Ivan, having been injected by the doctor,
experiences hallucinations:
, , , . Ko
, , O ,
, , 5
(Birch-trees, melted snow, bridges, and under the bridges, mountain

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

29

streams. Bells are ringing, its nice, quietHe was looking into the
distance with delight, listening to thunderous spring streams and bells,
hearing singing and poetry)

The sound of bells, mentioned twice, makes one recall that chime
music, prominent in many of Igor Stravinskiis early opuses, represents
an idiosyncrasy of his style.6 Moreover, the spring images and
thunderous sounds that appear in Ivans imagination bring to mind
Stravinskiis ballet The Rite of Spring (1910).
At first sight it seems amazing that in The Master and Margarita
Bulgakov assigns Igor Stravinskiis name to the house of grief, for the
music of this composer immediately provokes associations with vigor,
dynamism, and vitality. The paradox is meaningful, however. The quiet
atmosphere of this place, never haunted by the Devils cohort, is
opposed to the pandemonium reigning in central Moscow. The clinic
becomes a refuge for the master, into which, broken and desperate, he
deliberately flees. Almost everyone who consorts with the devils later
ends up in itIvan Bezdomnyi, Nikanor Bosoi, the artist Bengalskii,
and the employees of the Theatrical Commission. Boris Gasparov
notes: ,
-,
. 7
(Stravinskiis clinic serves as a finale to every act of the half-theatre
show, half-scandal that unfolds in the course of the novel.) Speaking
musically, the silence in this clinic represents a point of rest and
equilibrium where all noise ceases to vibrate.
As will be shown below, the peculiarities of Igor Stravinskiis
reputation in the late twenties and thirties, the closeness of his and
Bulgakovs artistic interests, and the similarities of their compositional
techniques suggest that Bulgakov had many reasons to allude to this
composer. A large part of the following discussion will be devoted to
the juxtaposition of Stravinskiis suite LHistoire du Soldat (1917-18)
with the musical material in The Master and Margarita.
Stravinskiis name appears neither in Bulgakovs biographies nor in
the memoirs and diaries of his wives. However, it is hard to imagine
that Bulgakov, a great connoisseur of music, never listened to
Stravinskiis early masterpiecesThe Nightingale (1908), The Firebird
(1910), Petrushka (1911), Les Noces (1914), Renard (1916), Pulcinella
(1920), and Oedipus-Rex (1927). During the twenties these works
received international acclaim and were hailed in Russia. By 1928,

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when the idea of The Master and Margarita was engendered,

Stravinskii, then like his namesake in The Master and Margarita a
man of about forty-five, had a worldwide reputation as one of the
leading contemporary composers.8
Bulgakov had the opportunity to get acquainted not only with
Stravinskiis early opuses themselves, but also with an extensive
examination of them provided by the most influential musicologist of
the time, Boris Asafi e v (1884 1949). His book, published in
Leningrad in 1929, represents the first solid analysis of the composers
style and technique.9 Whether Bulgakov actually read it or not, he quite
likely knew of its existence, since he was well acquainted with its
author. In June 1936 Asafiev invited Bulgakov to write the libretto for
the historical opera Minin and Pozharskii, to be staged in the Bolshoi
Theater. In 1936-38, during the time Bulgakov was working on the final
version of The Master and Margarita, they corresponded and met.
There is a particular reason to suppose that this musicologist shared
with Bulgakov his articles and book on Stravinskii. In Leningrad
Asafiev was the most influential critic,10 however, notwithstanding his
authoritative position in musical circles, his fascination with
Stravinskiis music was criticized by the composers opponents, who
were either too conservative to appreciate Stravinskiis talent or merely
envious of his fame.11 Their reproaches were poisonously formulaic.
Thus, for example, the critic Malkov wrote that Asafiev strove to
rehabilitate Stravinskii in the eyes of Soviet public opinion
(
). 12
The situation was aggravated in 1932, when the Communist Party
issued its Resolution, imposing the method of Socialist Realism on
Soviet composers.13 Soon after that Stravinskiis music was completely
discredited. The modernist works of Western composers were banned
from performance. A great admirer of Stravinskiis talent, Asafiev was
nonetheless forced to hail the Party Resolution. Bulgakov must have
being aware of this situationjudging by his correspondence with
Asafiev, their relationship was close.14
Since Stravinskii left Russia in 1914, he was not affected by the Soviet
regime and its functionaries as much as Bulgakov was. Yet, as we see,
in the 1930s the fates of the two artists were to some extent similar:
they were both disgraced in their homeland.
Stravinskiis and Bulgakovs interests coincided in several respects.

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

31

Stravinskiis erudition in various disciplines aesthetics and

psychology, mathematics and the history of art, philosophy and
religiongreatly contributed to his creativity.15 He was one of the few
Russian composers to write sacred music in the late twenties and the
thirties. During this period he wrote The Symphony of Psalms (1930),
and settings for the prayers Otche nash (1926), Veruiu (1932), and
Bogoroditse devo, raduisia (1934). In exactly the same years Bulgakov
elaborated the religious theme in literature. Their fondness for theatre
and carnival culture constitutes another bond that unites these two
artists. The elements of irony, the grotesque and eccentricity, which
characterize such works by Stravinskii as his ballets Petrushka,
Pulcinella, and A Card Game (1936), also permeate Bulgakovs last
novel.
In a way particularly reminiscent of The Master and Margarita,
Stravinskiis suite LHistoire du Soldat combines religious and
carnivalesque features. This music is characterized by crisp rhythms, a
furious pace, sharp dynamic shifts and jumps, elements of mockery and
the grotesquethe qualities inherent in the spirit of the diablerie layer
in The Master and Margarita. On the other hand, LHistoire du Soldat
also contains elements of sacred music that echo the mood of the
Jerusalem chapters in The Master and Margarita.
Consider the titles of the suites concluding parts:
Three dances: tango, waltz, and ragtime
Devils Dance
Little Chorale
Devils Song
Great Chorale
Triumphal March of the Devil

The very blend of the sacred, the diabolic, and the profane, as reflected
in these titles, brings to mind Bulgakovs novel, in which the devilish
imagery and grotesque scenes of the Moscow chapters alternate with
the Biblical events of the Jerusalem story. The unusual proximity of
jazz and church music recalls the fox-trot Alleluia which reappears
thrice in The Master and Margarita. One may also notice the fact that
danse macabre scenes are featured in both works (Satans ball in The
Master and Margarita and The Devils Dance in LHistoire du
Soldat).
According to Mikhail Druskin, LHistoire du Soldat is
quintessentially representative of major features of Stravinskiis art: it

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incorporates the composers previous achievements and contains grains

of his future inventions,16 and as such this work is very useful for the
discussion of Stravinskiis and Bulgakovs artistic styles.
There are reasons to suppose that Bulgakov was indeed familiar with
this piece. After 1924 LHistoire du Soldat acquired its reputation
throughout the worldit was performed in Switzerland, England,
France, and other countries. In Russia it was staged in January 1928 by
the Moscow Revolutionary Ballet. 1 7 As a theatre piece to be
performed, played and danced, as well as a fascinating work of music,
LHistoire du Soldat should have presented particular interest for
Bulgakov, who was living in the capital at that time. He frequented
musical concerts, both public and private,18 so he had the opportunity to
hear the trio version of this suite (1919), which was also performed in
Russia in the twenties.19 Finally, as was mentioned earlier, Bulgakov
might have been familiar with Asafievs book on Stravinskii, twenty
pages of which are devoted to a discussion of LHistoire du Soldat, its
themes, rhythms and structure.
Some musicologists consider the libretto of LHistoire du Soldat,
written by the Swiss novelist C. F. Ramuz, to be simplistic. Andr
Boucourechliev, however, points out that despite its apparent
simplicity LHistoire is one of Stravinskiis most mysterious
masterpieces.20 The composer himself defined it as an amusing and
tragic Russian parable.21 Based on the Russian folk tale The Runaway
Soldier and the Devil, LHistoire du Soldat elaborates the theme of a
devilish pact.22 The fact that the protagonist is a violinist becomes
fundamental: according to Stravinskii, the violin symbolizes the
Soldiers soul. 2 3 Though it is less its narrative part than the
multidimensional spirit of the musical arrangement that evokes a
comparison of this suite with Bulgakovs novel, its plot is worth
outlining.
The story is built on a series of interactions between the Soldier and
the Devil. During their first encounter, the Devil obtains the Soldiers
violin in exchange for a magic book that can yield a great fortune. The
acquisition of wealth from an evil source turns out to be an illconceived enterprise, however: it deprives the Soldier of artistic skills.
Later, in the royal palace, they have a violin-playing contest. Now
disillusioned with wealth, the Soldier regains his ability to play and
conquers his enemy. Assuming the role of a doctor, the Soldier cures a
sick princess with his music. She becomes his wife, but their happiness

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

33

does not last long. Because the Soldier has broken his promise not to
cross frontiers, the couple falls into the Devils power. The Devil thus
not only threatens the heros artistic freedom, but also leads him to total
destruction.
In other words, just like Bulgakovs novel, Stravinskiis suite
elaborates the Faustian theme. The sets of characters are also
comparable: each work contains a Devil, a poor artist (the Soldier and
the master), and a woman of royal blood (the Princess and Margarita).24
In The Master and Margarita the Devil acts like God, punishing
scoundrels and uniting lovers. The Devil in LHistoire du Soldat has an
analogous mission. As the Stravinskii scholar Richard Taruskin notes,
he assumes the role of some sort of avenging angel.25
Like The Master and Margarita, LHistoire du Soldat builds links
between the distant past and contemporary reality. In Bulgakovs novel
the action takes place in ancient Jerusalem and contemporary Moscow.
Although the narrative part of LHistoire du Soldat is rooted in a folk
tale, its action occurs in the present of its creation (1917-18), which
leads Taruskin to conclude that LHistoire du Soldat may be read as a
parable of the Russian Revolution as viewed from afar.26 Stravinskii
and Ramuz modernized and politicized the tale: it suffices to mention
that the Soldier wears the Swiss Army uniform of World War I and the
Devil rides in an automobile.
However, the most vivid allusion to twentieth-century reality in
LHistoire du Soldat is expressed by means of music. Its rhythmic,
modal, and harmonic design stood out as highly innovative not only
when it was created, but also two decades later, as the fact that its
performance was prohibited in Nazi Germany clearly demonstrates.27
When the trio version of the suite was first performed in Leningrad in
1926, some critics did not hide their irritation with its avant-garde
technique:
,

, .
C ,
, C.
(), A. K () . B ().28
(The original version of this work aimed to strike its listeners dumb in
earnestAs arranged by the composer for a trio, it may provoke first a
smile, then bewilderment and disappointment. The self-sacrificing
heroes of labor who managed to successfully overcome the

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innumerable tricks of this sound-montage were S. Ivanov (violin), A.
Kaminskii (piano), and P. Vantroba (clarinet)).

These words provide a clear illustration of the kind of hostile reception

Stravinskii received at the hands of some Russian musicians.
Let us now concentrate on structural features of these two works. It
has been noted that in his prose Bulgakov mentions strikingly diverse
musical material. V. Sakharov points out that the writer refers not only
to the lofty classical music of Gounod, Verdi, Glinka, Mussorgskii,
Borodin, Tchaikovskii, Rimskii-Korsakov, and Wagner, but also to
unsophisticated romances, criminals songs, semi-vulgar couplets
(chastushki), soldiers songs, frivolous operetta arias, and revolutionary
anthems.29 Sakharov concludes that the multicoloured musical texture
in Bulgakovs prose is subordinated to a single composition: the diverse
melodies, voices, and sounds are integrated, he says, into some kind of
strange symphony.
While in its etymological sense the word symphony (Greek:
sounding together) applies to The Master and Margarita, its
strangeness deserves more attention. Let us recall the musical genres
mentioned in the novel. Pontius Pilate hears a march. The jazz band in
Griboiedov performs the fox-trot Alleluia. Bezdomnyi chases Woland
to the roar of a polonaise. The Variety show concludes with a march. A
march also accompanies Berliozs funeral. When Margarita turns into a
witch, she hears a waltz. Frogs honor her with a march. The employees
of the Theatrical Commission perform the folk song Slavnoe more,
sviashchennyi Baikal. At Satans Ball these genres reappear in almost
the same sequence: march, polonaise, waltz, and fox-trot.
Such variety proves Bulgakovs acquaintance with modernist
compositional technique, for the blending of dissimilar genres is a
prime characteristic of twentieth-century music. Stravinskii was one of
the pioneers of this method. 30 Les Noces, Renard, Oedipus Rex, and
some of his other mixed works influenced not only composers, but also
artists involved in theatre productions.
LHistoire du Soldat belongs to the list of Stravinskiis mixed
compositions. It absorbed folk Russian and Gypsy motifs, church
melodies (Lutheran chorales) and elements of Western dance music
(Viennese waltz, Argentinean tango, and American ragtime). According
to Roman Vlad, in this opus all the incongruous elements are
assimilated, fused and reduced to the common denominator of the
composers very personal manner.31 Thus, Sakharovs definition of the

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

35

music resounding on the pages of Bulgakovs prose as a strange

symphony can be made more specific: musical material in The Master
and Margarita is subordinated to a single composition similar to that of
Stravinskiis LHistoire du Soldat.
The various genres used in LHistoire du Soldat and The Master and
Margarita fall into the same categories:

Processional accompaniment
European ballroom dances
American broken rhythms
Sacred music
Folk music

The Master and

Margarita

LHistoire du Soldat

marches
waltz, polonaise
fox-trot
chant Alleluia
Slavnoe more

marches
waltz
ragtime, tango
chorale
Russian and Gypsy
tunes

It is characteristic, however, that in both works, marches become

polysemantic. For instance, as the dominant genre, the march appears in
The Master And Margarita on various narrative levels. In the Jerusalem
chapters, the lugubrious marching of the Roman infantry stands for the
military theme, foretelling Yeshuas execution. In the Moscow layer,
we hear three types of marches, all of which are associated with the
grotesque: the obscene march, which concludes the Variety Theater
show (pp. 144-45), the march accompanying Berliozs funeral (drumbeats and the braying of some off-key trumpets),32 and a solemn march
played by the frogs, honoring Margaritas transformation into a witch.33
At the end, the march enters a pseudo-liturgical context. It resounds
after Satans Ball, when Woland makes Margarita drink blood, thus
initiating a travesty of the Eucharist:
Margarita felt dizzy, but the cup was already at her lips and a voice
was whispering in her ears:
Dont be afraid, your majestydont be afraid, your majesty, the
blood has long since drained away into the earth and grapes have grown
on the spot.
Her eyes shut, Margarita took a sip and the sweet juice ran through
her veins, her ears rang. She was deafened by cocks crowing, a distant
band played a march. 34

Thus the march, as a leit-genre of The Master And Margarita, creates

links between several key events of the novelYeshuas execution,
Berliozs funeral, the Variety show, Margaritas metamorphosis, and

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her final communion with the devilish cohort.

The march is equally polysemantic in LHistoire du Soldat. The
marching of the Soldier, first introduced as having military
connotations, reappears throughout the suite and echoes in other parts,
thus activating a series of meanings. Stravinskii links it with a) the
sphere of the sacred (according to the composer, one of the chief motifs
of the march resembles the Dies Irae, a part of the Requiem),35 b) the
palace theme (the Soldier enters the Kings palace to the sound of the
Royal March), and c) the grotesque theme of evil (LHistoire du Soldat
ends with the Triumphal March of the Devil).
Stravinskii did not invent the polysemy of genres. Marches have
always been a part of Western drama. Divorced from military
connotations, they were commonly used in Romantic operas and
symphonies, saturated with irony and ambiguities. In such works a
march often conveys a sense of grandeur on one level of dramaturgy,
and becomes parodied on another. Thus, grotesque overtones permeate
Berliozs March to the Scaffold (Fantastic Symphony, 1830) or
Verdis brindisi-march (the First act of Othello, 1877). Mahler was
also fond of this device. In Part 3 of his symphony No. 1 (1888), the
funeral march, based on a folk song Frre Jacques, serves its
ritualistic purpose, but due to its carnivalesque elements, it also
functions as a travesty of the ritual.
Stravinskii preserves this tradition, but also contributes to it by
introducing the principle of analogy. In the music of Romanticism, the
dynamic of development was mainly built on contrasts. While
instructing his students in classical composition, Arnold Schoenberg
asserted that in large forms there are innumerable kinds of contrast; the
larger the piece, the more types of contrast should be present to
illuminate the main idea.36 In smaller forms, contrast plays an
analogous role. The middle (development) section in a sonata, scherzo
or minuet provides an antithesis to the exposition in rhythm, structures,
tonality, and thematic material.
Stravinskii establishes the technique of parallelism to replace this
use of antithesis. Druskin explains that the composer does not treat
various musical layers as polarities, but makes them interact on the
basis of their similarity. He writes:
The linking of the scenes is achieved by identity, repetition, by crossreferences and parallelisms, all of which are features of Stravinskiis
multicentral works and particularly noticeable in cyclic works belonging

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

37

to mixed forms.37

Coming back to LHistoire du Soldat we may say that on the narrative

level its characters interact as antipodes: a good Soldier confronts a bad
Devil; a poor Soldier falls in love with a wealthy princess. However, on
the musical level, the relationships are far more intricate. Instead of
being purely opposed to the Soldiers theme, the Royal and Devils
themes contain analogies with it.
A similar principle of analogy characterizes the compositional
structure of The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov does not so much
contrast contemporary Moscow with ancient Jerusalem as reveal
similarities between the two cities, both of which ostracize
prophetsthe master and Yeshua. Gasparov meticulously analyzed
numerous analogies in The Master and Margarita. As he has
demonstrated, the various narrative layers of Bulgakovs novel develop
the same motifs.
Thus, for instance, the motif of money appears when the master wins
100 thousand roubles in the lottery. During the Variety show the
audience is given foreign currency. Nikanor Bosoi accepts a bribe from
the Devil; he later dreams of returning it, and his dream echoes the
events that happen at the Variety show. The evil aspect of accursed
money is mirrored in the allusion to Gounods opera F a u s t,
specifically Mephistopheles aria about the Golden Calf. In the
Jerusalem chapters, Judas betrays Yeshua for thirty tetradrachms. As
Gasparov shows, the motif of money is interconnected with other
motifs of crime, prison, execution and so on. The critic asserts:
,

.
, ,
, ,
,
.38
(It seems that the basic principle, which determines the whole semantic
structure of The Master and Margarita, is the principle of leitmotif
construction of the narrative. By that is meant the principle according to
which every motif, having appeared once, is further repeated numerous
times, functioning each time in a new version, in a new form, and in new
combinations with other motifs.)

Having described the most important of these motifs, Gasparov

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concludes that their interrelations create a complex compositional

structure reminiscent of works of music: ,

.39 (It
is clear that the described principle of construction is highly
characteristic of poetry, and, to an even greater extent, of music.)
Bulgakovs compositional technique coincides particularly well with
Stravinskiis; as Asafiev pointed out, the fusion of modified and
interconnected motifs into a single complex structure characterizes the
style of this composer. While analyzing one of the parts of LHistoire
du Soldatthe Little ConcertoAsafiev suggests that it offers us an
exemplary model of Stravinskiis motivic technique of mosaic
(p. 172). As he writes, in this scene:
Material from all the preceding episodes is used and brought to a point of
high intensity. Motives alternate with one another, cross-fertilize one
another; pieces of motives are intermingled with other motives; motives
are compressed, extended, or shortened.40

Several decades later Druskin elaborated on this topic, suggesting that

Stravinskii constructed his musical forms by means of interlacings and
correspondencescreating arches of sound and shifting, changing
and varying them (p. 135).
Let us now consider the endings of The Master and Margarita and
LHistoire du Soldat. Russian Orthodox by his faith, Stravinskii
asserted that in order to create sacred music one has to be a
believernot merely a believer in symbolic figures, but in the Person
of the Lord, the Person of the Devil, and the Miracles of the Church.41
Although and LHistoire du Soldat is not a piece of sacred music, one
still wonders why the suite ends with the triumph of the Devil. One can
see in it another parallel with The Master and Margarita.
In the final part of LHistoire du Soldat, the defeated Soldier, his
soul, and the sound of his violin vanish in the distance. As
Boucourechliev notes,
[d]espite the internal rhythmic activity in these final bars, the end of
[LHistoire du Soldat] is frozen into immobility; stripped of everything,
the music continues inexorable to end in the voidThe place of the soul
is taken by Fate, there marked by a bell and here by the funeral drums. 42

The soul of Bulgakovs protagonist is also taken by Fate. The master

dies in his room in Professor Stravinskiis clinic. Not having been

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

39

granted Light, he and his mistress enter the kingdom of eternal rest. On
the final pages of the novel we first hear the narrators voice:
How sad, ye gods, how sad the world is at evening, how mysterious the
mists over the swamps. You will know it when you have wandered
astray in those mists, when you have suffered greatly before dying, when
you have walked through the world carrying an unbearable burden. You
know it too when you are weary and ready to leave this earth without
regret; its mists, its swamps and its rivers; ready to give yourself into the
arms of death with a light heart, knowing that death alone can comfort
you.43

This passage evokes a question: is the world tragic according to The

Master and Margarita? An analogous question arises for the listener of
Stravinskiis LHistoire du Soldat: does this suite resolve the Faustian
theme in a pessimistic way?
Various answers have been given to these questions. Asafiev was
among those who interpreted Stravinskiis suite as an affirmation of
life:
Stravinskiis ending to [LHistoire du Soldat ] is right. Dont forget that
[LHistoire du Soldat] was written during a period of frightful carnage
when there was plenty of justification for pessimism. But there is no
pessimism in [LHistoire du Soldat ]. There is pity for a departing life,
there is irony, and there is, if you will, skepticism: Stravinskii seems to
be asking, when I am no longer a sentient being, will there be any future
me in eternal change, eternal transmutation? or is all life just a rhythmic
pulsation in the noisy roar of eternity? Perhaps so. There was the same
irony in Rabelais, in Cervantes, in Leonardo da Vinci. Have those who
have concluded their tales with gay wedding feasts never really felt pity
for life, or never sensed the irony of the inevitable sadness which is the
outcome of all such revelry? It would be [sad if they did not].44

Bulgakovs novel was created during a period of even more frightful

carnage, but, as I have shown elsewhere, The Master and Margarita is
permeated with optimism, in both the common and the religious
sense.45
One of the parallels between these two works, however, remains
mysterious. LHistoire du Soldat is meant to be performed by an
ensemble of soloists: violin, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone,
double bass, and percussion. Taruskin asserts that Stravinskiis use of
the bassoon is odd:
If the choice of instruments had been influenced by jazz, why, to begin

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with, did Stravinskii choose a bassoon? The composer tried to get around
this point in Expositions and Developments by saying that the bassoon
was his substitute for the saxophone. But the saxophone was no jazz
legitimate at this time; its first jazz use came in the Chicago bands of the
1920s.46

It has to be noted that there is still no satisfactory explanation to the fact

that Bulgakov gave the devil Korovev the second name Faggot (a
Russian word for bassoon).
The Oxford Companion to Music throws light on this coincidence:
Played quickly and staccato it [a bassoon] often becomes comical and
its use by some composers for humorous purposes has earned it the
very one-sided description of the Clown of the Orchestra.47 Yet the
explanation is elusive, for as if in the spirit of Stravinskiis and
Bulgakovs humour, it is followed by a note: There is an instrument
called the Russian Bassoon, which is not a bassoon at all.
The present discussion was not aimed at answering all possible
questions that arise from the comparison of these two works. Its
purpose was simply to show that Bulgakov had various reasons for
referring in his novel to Igor Stravinskii. Whether he did so consciously
or unconsciously, the name of this composer stands as an emblem for
The Master and Margarita: its themes, its rhythm, its irony, and its
structure.
NOTES
1. The initial version of this article was presented at the BASEES Conference
(Cambridge University, UK) in March of 1999. I am pleased to express my deep
gratitude to Professor of Music Liudmila Kovnatskaia (St. Petersburg Conservatory
and the Russian Institute of the History of Arts, SPB) for reading the draft of this
paper and for providing me with her valuable comments. I also would like to thank
an expert on Igor Stravinskii, Professor Victor Varunts (Moscow Conservatory) for
his information concerning the stage performance of LHistoire du Soldat in Russia.
2. On music in Bulgakov see, for example, Igor Belza, Partitury Mikhaila
Bulgakova, Voprosy literatury, no. 5, 1991, pp. 55-83; A.I. Klimovitskii, Opera
Sergeia Slonimskogo Master i Margarita. In A.A. Ninov (ed.), Problemy
teatralnogo naslediia M.A. Bulgakova (Leningrad: LGITMIK, 1987), pp. 105-19;
Henry Hatfield, The Walpurgis Night: Theme And Variations, Journal of
European Studies, 13, no. 1-2, March-June 1983, pp. 56-74. In his article Iz
nabliudenii nad motivnoi strukturoi romana M.A. Bulgakova Master i Margarita
Boris Gasparov suggests that the allusion to Stravinskiis name in The Master and
Margarita is related to the novels folk themes. See Boris Gasparov, Literaturnye

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

41

leitmotivy (Moscow: Nauka, 1994), p. 42. Nadine Natov discussed the image of
Doctor Stravinskii as an encoded Mephistophelean musical theme (Paper
Metaphysical and Musical Symbolism in The Master and Margarita presented at
1996 AATSEEL Bulgakov panel). Soon after I had finished my paper, I came
across Nadine Natovs article The Meaning of Music and Musical Images in the
Works of Mikhail Bulgakov (In Lesley Milne (ed.), Bulgakov: The NovelistPlaywright, (Luxemburg: Harwood, 1995), pp. 171-184), several pages of which
are dedicated to Igor Stravinskii, specifically to his LHistoire du Soldat. Natov
discusses different aspects of Stravinskiis suite than I do, and comes to a different
conclusion: This symbolic talehalf-opera and half-balletmight be perceived as
encoded in the situation in which the nave poet Ivan Bezdomnyi find himself
(p. 181).
3. Ia. Platek, Master i muzyka, in Muzykalnaia zhizn, no. 15, 1984, p. 18.
4. Mikhail Bulgakov, Sobranie sochinenii. 10 vols. (Moscow: Golos, 1997),
vol. 6, pp. 592-602.
5. ibid. vol. 5, pp. 515.
6. Mikhail Druskin, Igor Stravinskii: His Life, Works and Views, (transl.
Martin Cooper), (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 62-63.
7. op. cit. Boris Gasparov, p. 47.
8. The doctor is presented in The Master and Margarita as a man of about
forty-five, with a clean-shaven actorish face, kind but extremely piercing eyes and a
courteous manner. Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita, (transl. Michael
Glenny), (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), p. 96.
9. Malcolm Hamrick Brown (ed.), Boris Asafiev, A Book about Stravinskii
(trans. Richard F. French), Russian Music Studies Series, No. 5, (Ann Arbor:
Brown. UMI Research Press, 1982). This is a translation of Igor Glebov [pseud. of
Boris Asafiev], Kniga o Stravinskom. (Leningrad: Triton, 1929).
10. He was a member of numerous khudozhestvennye sovety (artistic councils)
and repertkomy (repertoire committees) of Leningrad theatres and orchestras. He
worked at various musical institutions, directing educational programs and
scientific research.
11. Unlike the composers Dmitrii Shostakovich and Gavriil Popov, and the
young pianists Maria Iudina and Aleksandr Kamenskii, who admired Stravinskiis
talent, some musicians responded to his success with reservations and sometimes
frustration. A graduate of the law department of St. Petersburg University,
Stravinskii received no formal education in music, but was instructed in
composition privately by N.A. Rimskii-Korsakov. The sudden fame of a composer
who had never studied at the Conservatory made other pupils of Rimskii-Korsakov
envious.
12. Nikolai Malkov [pseud. Islamei], Revoliutsioner ili korol?, in Zhizn
iskusstva, no. 14, April 6, 1926, p. 7.
13. This situation lasted until Khrushchevs rise to power. For details see
Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20 vols.
(London: MacMillan, 1980), vol. 19, p. 385.
14. In a letter from January 9, 1937 Bulgakov writes: Things are hard for me,

42

KSANA BLANK

and I feel terrible. Obsessive thoughts about my ruined literary life and about my
hopeless future give rise to other black thoughts (J.A.E. Curtis, Manuscripts Dont
Burn: Mikhail Bulgakov. A Life in Letters and Diaries (London: Bloomsbury
Publishing, 1991), p. 246). In a letter dated October 2, 1937 he maintains: Over the
last seven years I have created sixteen works in different genres, and they have all
perished (ibid. p. 260). The tone of these letters suggests that their frankness was
mutual. Elena Bulgakova writes in her diary that Asafiev valued her husbands
moral qualities highly, which in the historical context of the thirties also signifies
that their relationship was close. (Elena Bulgakova, Dnevnik. (Moscow: Knizhnaia
palata, 1990), p. 158).
15. op. cit. Mikhail Druskin, p. 12.
16. op. cit. Mikhail Druskin, p. 48.
17. See V. Ivings review of the performance of LHistoire Du Soldat in
Sovremennyi teatr, no. 3. January 17, 1928, p. 45.
18. L.E. BelozerskaiaBulgakova, O, med vospominanii (Ann Arbor: Ardis,
1979), p. 131.
19. It was performed by the LASM (Leningrad Association for Contemporary
Music) on April 9, 1926 in the Malyi zal (then the foyer of the Bolshoi zal) of the
Leningrad Philharmonic. For the announcement see Zhizn iskusstva, no. 14, April
6, 1926, p. 23.
20. Andr Boucourechliev, Stravinskii, (transl. Martin Cooper) (New York:
Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1987), p. 103.
21. Robert Craft (ed.), Igor and Vera Stravinskii (London: Thames and Hudson,
1982), pp. 14-15.
22. For the tale Begloi soldat i chort see M.K. Azadovskii, N.P. Andreev, Iu.
M. Sokolova (eds.), A.N. Afanasev, Narodnye russkie skazki, 3 vols. (Moscow:
Academia, 1936), vol. 1, pp. 38083. For a synopsis of the suites scenes see Eric
Walter White, Stravinskii: The Composer and His Works (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1969), pp. 228229.
23. Igor Stravinskii and Robert Craft, Expositions and Developments (New
York: Doubleday and Co., 1962), p. 104.
24. Margarita is chosen to be the queen of the Ball because, as a descendent of
French kings, she has royal blood.
25. Richard Taruskin, Stravinskii and the Russian Traditions: a Biography of
the Works through Mavra. 2 vols. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996),
vol. 2, p. 1300.
26. ibid. p. 1298.
27. Robert Craft, Conversations with Igor Stravinskii. (New York: Doubleday
and Co., 1959), p. 128.
28. V. Muzalevskii [pseud. of V.I. Bunimovich], Bloknot muzykanta, in
Zhizn iskusstva, no. 16, April 20, 1926, p.17.
29. V. Sakharov, Simfoniia Mikhaila Bulgakova in Muzykalnaia zhizn , no.
12, 1990, pp. 2425.
30. A similar technique characterizes some works by Mahler, the French group
Les Six, and Shostakovich.

BULGAKOVS MASTER AND MARGARITA

43

31. Roman Vlad, Stravinskii, (transl. Frederick Fuller) (London: Oxford

University Press, 1978), 3rd edition, p. 64.
32. op. cit. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, p. 250.
33. ibid. p. 277.
34. ibid. p. 310.
35. op. cit. Igor Stravinskii and Robert Craft, p. 104.
36. Gerald Strang and Leonard Stein (eds.), Arnold Schoenberg, Fundamentals
of Musical Composition (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), p. 178. Schoenbergs
own music is modernist, but in Fundamentals of Musical Composition, from which
this quote is taken, he aims to provide a basic text for work in composition.
37. op. cit. Mikhail Druskin, pp. 135-36.
38. ibid. p. 30.
39. op. cit. Boris Gasparov, p. 32.
40. op. cit. Boris Asafiev, p. 171.
41. op. cit. Robert Craft, p. 143.
42. op. cit. Andr Boucourechliev, p. 136.
43. op. cit. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, p. 426.
44. op. cit. Boris Asafiev, p. 184.
45. See Ksana Blank [Ksenia Mechik-Blank], Na rassvete shestnadtsatogo
chisla vesennego mesiatsa nisana: apofatizm romana Master i Margarita. In A.A.
Ninov, A.A. Grubin, A.S. Burmistrov (eds.), Mikhail Bulgakov na iskhode XX veka:
materialy vosmykh mezhdunarodnykh Bulgakovskikh chtenii v S.-Peterburge,
Biblioteka Sankt-Peterburgskogo Bulgakovskogo Obshchestva series, (St.
Petersburg: Russian Institute of the History of Arts, 1999), Vol. 2, pp. 134-44 and
The Endless Passage: The Making of a Plot in the Russian Novel (Doctoral
Dissertation, Columbia University, 1997), pp. 158-95.
46. op. cit. Richard Taruskin, vol. 2, p. 1301.
47. John Owen Wared (ed.), Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 10th edition, p. 697.

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