Master and Margarita is a complex book
with many levels and themes. One of the aspects of the book that
endears it to me is both the use of music as a leitmotif and as a
link to the literary references that inform the books and provides
yet another referential layer. The following are some of the more
important musical references.
The most important musical reference
links with the title and one of the major literary influences on the
novel. That is in Chapter 7 when Woland appears to Stepa Likhodeev
and says "Here I am!". This line, which was
also considered by Bulgakov as a title for the whole novel,
is a quotation from Gounod's Opera, Faust. In Act 1, Faust, in
despair in his study, calls on Satan to appear. Perhaps even more
important is the name, Margarita, which is a clear reference to
Faust's love interest in the first part of Goethe's drama and who is
also the important love interest in Gounod's opera which focuses
exclusively on the first part of the drama.
Yet, there are other important musical
references including Verdi. In Aida, the refrain "O gods,
gods..." runs through Master and Margarita like a
leitmotif. It is probably taken from Verdi's opera Aida, which
Bulgakov knew and loved and quoted in other works.
Another instance can be found in
Chapter 4, where Ivan is accompanied through Moscow by music from Act
3, Scene 1 of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, based on the
novel by Pushkin. This is a ballroom scene, in which Onegin
meets Prince Gremin, who has married Tatyana, with whom Onegin
previously flirted.
The musical references extend to the names of some of the many (this is a Russian novel) characters. There are significant characters with the names Berlioz, Rimsky, and Stravinsky. This aspect overlaps with the many instances of humor in the novel of which I will discuss in another entry.
Finally, even American popular music is
enlisted by Bulgakov when Hallelujah!, the song by the American
Vincent Youmans is played both by the jazz band at Griboyedov and by
the band at Woland's Grand Ball. Youmans claimed the melody was one
of his first ever. He wrote it in his days at a Naval Training Station, and it was performed by John Philip Sousa as a march. The English lyric, written by Leo Robin and Clifford Grey, includes the lines "Satan lies a waitin' and creatin' skies of grey, but Hallelujah! Hallelujah helps to shoo the clouds away!" Youmans introduced "Hallelujah!" in Hit the Deck (1927) by vaudeville star Stella Mayhew.
That music informs and deepens the
enjoyment of The Master and Margarita is yet another aspect of its
standing as a twentieth century masterpiece of Russian literature.
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