https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.

6736892
July 3, 2018

Suite “The Snow Storm” by Georgy Sviridov, as a musical

illustration for Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”.
Serge Shavirin1
1 Email: serge.shavirin@phystech.edu

ABSTRACT It is shown that Georgy Sviridov’s suite “The Snow Storm”, which had the original name “Musical illustrations
for A.S. Pushkin “The Snow Storm”, in fact, is an accurate musical illustration of the novel by A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”.
Chapter from the book “Beyond Pushkin”.

CONTENTS DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN SVIRIDOV’S “THE SNOW

STORM” AND THE PUSHKIN’S TALE OF THE SAME
Creation history of “The Snow Storm”. 1 NAME.
To this day, musicians are still debating about the division of
Discrepancies between Sviridov’s “The Snow Storm” the suite into parts and their content. It is considered that the
and the Pushkin’s tale of the same name. 1 sequence of parts does not follow exactly the storyline. Other
options are considered. Cyclopedia cited the working out
Sviridov’s suite “The Snow Storm” and Pushkins’s
of music teachers Elena Dubova Nikolaevna and Oleksenko
novel “Eugene Onegin”. 2
Tatyana Nikolaevna, who placed the parts differently1 . At the
Troika . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
lessons of the 6th grade school classes is considered the topic
Waltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
“Expressive possibilities of symphonic music in the illustration
Spring and Autumn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
of literary images based on the example of “The Snow Storm”
Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
by George Sviridov”. The suite is used for musical design
Pastoral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
of the exhibition “Rurikovichi” from the series “Russia is my
Military march . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
history”. It is interesting that it is this music was chosen for
Wedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
the most ancient history of Russia, although it is not entirely
Waltz echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
clear what relation a subject of Pushkin’s story “The Snow
Winter road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Storm” may have to Russian history.
The ringing of the suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The film “The Snow Storm” does not repeat precisely the
Who is the real author of “The Snow Storm” suite? 5 story of Pushkin. First, the Russian troika is shown quickly
galloping across the field. View of the troika is replaced by
panoramas of Russian nature and Russian churches. The
CREATION HISTORY OF “THE SNOW STORM”.
movie was created in vicinity of town Suzdal. For a moment
The original sketch of the melodies included in the suite there is a silhouette of the famous “Church of the Intercession
“The Snow Storm” was written by Sviridov in the form of on the Nerl”. Pushkin’s tale “The Snow Storm” is preceded by
musical illustrations for the movie “The Snow Storm”, created an epigraph from the ballad of Vasily Zhukovsky “Svetlana”:
in 1964 by producer Vladimir Basov based on the tale of
same name by Alexander Pushkin. The final form of the Horses race along the hills,
suite was created ten years after the release of the film. It is Trample on the deep snow...
said that the idea to rework the music score for the movie Here, aside the temple of God
Is visible lonely.
into a separate independent composition was suggested to
...
the composer by his wife. After the suite was performed by Suddenly a blizzard around;
Fedoseev Symphony Orchestra, the composer became world- Snow is banging down;
famous. Neither before nor after that, Sviridov did not create Black raven, whistling wing,
works of such a high class. During a creation of the suite Winds over the sleigh;
Sviridov was a secretary of the Union of USSR Composers. A prophetic groan says sadness!
Being a convinced communist, Sviridov was elected several Horses are hasty
times as a Supreme Soviet deputy of the RSFSR. Composer Sensitively staring into the dark distance,
is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, the most prestigious Rising manes...2
cemetery in Russia. 1 “Public lesson. First September”.
2 Here is my own free translation of Vasily Zhukovsky poem.
 Suite “The Snow Storm” by Georgy Sviridov, as a musical illustration for Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. — 2/5

A young girl sees a dream in which she, repeating the not a march, but a stylized cabaret music. Approximately
ballad of Bürger “Lenore”, jumps on horseback with the dead with such a music on the 1st of May holiday in St. Petersburg
groom. When Svetlana realizes that her dear friend is dead, along Nevsky Prospekt marching dressed in short skirts, the
the girl awakens. In “The Snow Storm” troika has nothing drummers-girls. In Pushkin’s story, music met returning army
from the mystical dream of Svetlana, but rather refers to was Vive Henri-Quatre4 , Tyrolean waltzes and arias from
the final lines of the Gogol “Dead Souls”, where troika is Jokonda5 . This music is not like military marches.
associated with Rus: The seventh part, “Wedding” sounds in the film when
Marya Gavrilovna sits in a small village church and waits for
And you, Russia of mine—are not you also speeding Vladimir to come. In Pushkin’s tale, the details of wedding
like a troika which nought can overtake? Is not the are omitted. A girl in a church glimpses only in a short story
road smoking beneath your wheels, and the bridges
narrated by Burmin. Movie events is the product of director’s
thundering as you cross them, and everything being left
in the rear, and the spectators, struck with the portent,
creativity. The eighth part, “Echo of Waltz” in the film does
halting to wonder whether you be not a thunderbolt not appear at all. What “echoes” or “memoirs” we may talk
launched from heaven? What does that awe-inspiring about in Pushkin’s tale, if there were no balls there? The last
progress of yours foretell? What is the unknown force ninth part is actually the continuation of the first part. Suite
which lies within your mysterious steeds? Surely the is looped over, but the end of Pushkin’s story is a simple happy
winds themselves must abide in their manes, and every end. In the film, troika rides on, and the voice behind scene
vein in their bodies be an ear stretched to catch the says: “What kind of stories could you hear on the road?”.
celestial message which bids them, with iron-girded
breasts, and hooves which barely touch the earth as
SVIRIDOV’S SUITE “THE SNOW STORM” AND
they gallop, fly forward on a mission of God?3
PUSHKINS’S NOVEL “EUGENE ONEGIN”.
The first part of the suite “Troika” followed by “Waltz”. The As music does not match what it supposedly should illustrate,
events of the film “The Snow Storm” begin with the meeting is not possible unambiguously conclude — what musical mo-
of the main character Marya Gavrilovna and Colonel Burmin. tifs behind this suite stay for Pushkin’s tale “The Snow Storm”.
Pushkin’s meeting is already near the end of the story. “Waltz” Everything changes dramatically and takes the right place,
by Sviridov illustrates the dance in the film “The Snow Storm”, if to address the suite “The Snow Storm” to the Pushkin’s
absent in Pushkin’ tale. The third part of the suite “Spring novel “Eugene Onegin”. Let’s try to map Sviridov’s work on
and Autumn” appears in the film, when viewer is transferred Pushkin’s novel.
to the beginning of the story and Maria Gavrilovna walks
through the woods with Vladimir. At first, she walks in the Troika
spring, and then in the autumn. Theme of nature in Pushkin’s After main epigraph and dedication, the novel “Eugene One-
story is missing. gin” begins with description of a young scapegrace from St.
The discrepancy between the suite and Pushkin’s tale ap- Petersburg “flew in the dust with post horses” to receive the
pears also in the fourth part “Romance”. Many note that the inheritance of a rich dying uncle. He flies “in the dust”, which
heat of emotions and passions of this “Romance” give goose- means that it is clearly not winter, and he is not Santa Claus.
bumps. The first musical phrase of Sviridov’s “Romance”, its Listening to the first part of “Troyka” you can hear the echoes
epigraph, is a direct quote from the famous song: “Do not go, of the composition “Time forward”: the work of some machine
stay with by me” created by Nikolai Zubov in 1899. The poet or the movement of a locomotive. Tooff-tooff ... tooff-tooff...
dedicated this romance to his muse, singer Anastasia Vyalt- Eugene breaks into Pushkin’s novel on his postal troyka and
seva, in which he was unrequitedly in love. But, in the story this fully corresponds to the first part of the suite “Troyka”,
“The Snow Storm” there is no any unrequited love. Maria although it can be assumed that, combined with the latter,
Gavrilovna was reciprocated by Vladimir, and Colonel Bur- this part has a much deeper meaning.
min both, and there was no reason for tears that accompany
the “Romance”. Movie has only a sketch of this “Romance”. Waltz
After Vladimir’s departure, Marya Gavrilovna plays a melody
The second part of the suite “Waltz” perfectly illustrates the
on piano, and then this music accompanies her walks with
Petersburg life of Onegin: an eternal feast at balls and ban-
Colonel Burmin.
quets. He “lives in a hurry and to feel it hastes”. This is not a
The fifth part, “Pastoral”, appears in the film when Marya
“Waltz” literally, it is the Waltz of life, which turns Onegin in
Gavrilovna walks the fields and later stands at her father’s
Petersburg. One can see here Pushkin’s lines:
grave. The same melody sounds when Vladimir gets into
the cart and gallops to Shadrino. “Pastoral” fits well into the What? Invitations? Yes, indeed,
action of the film, but Pushkin’s girl does not walk in the fields. To a soiree three houses bid him:
Sixth part, “March” appears in the film when troops return Here, there will be a ball; elsewhere, a children’s
home, and women throw their caps into the air. Musicologists 4 Verses from the comedy of French playwright Charles Kolle “Departure
note some parodic motives in this march: it is more likely for Henry IV’s Hunt” (1764).
5 Nikolay Izuar’s comic opera “Jocond, or the Adventurer”, which was
3 Translated from Russian by D. J. Hogarth
successfully presented in Paris, 1814 when Russian troops were there.
 Suite “The Snow Storm” by Georgy Sviridov, as a musical illustration for Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. — 3/5

So whither is my scamp to scurry? Romance

Whom will he start with? Never mind: In the third chapter of “Eugene Onegin” Pushkin tells how
’tis simple to get everywhere in time. Tatyana’s love arises and how she decides to write her letter.
Meanwhile, in morning dress,
The next part of the suite “The Snow Storm” is “Romance”,
Having donned a broad bolivar,
Onegin drives to the boulevard
very accurately conveying Tatiana’s feelings. In the center
And there goes strolling unconfined of this part is a solo on the trumpet. If you proportionally,
Till vigilant Breguet to him chimes dinner.6 up to seconds, map this solo on the third chapter of “Eugene
Onegin”, then Tatiana begins to write her letter immediately
Spring and Autumn after the end of the solo. At the same time, Sviridov’s music
subsides a little. Tatyana’s love is unrequited, as well as
The second chapter of “Eugene Onegin” is based on opposi-
the author of romance “Do not go, stay with me”. You can
tions beginning with the epigraph: the dead and empty Latin
sing the same tune with “I write to you — what would one
word “Rus”, encountered in “Satyrs” by Horace, is opposed to
more?”. Tatyana’s desire, the very first to turn to a man with
the living, real and inexhaustible russian word “Rus”, mean-
a confession of love, fully reflects the courage and firmness
ing a real country. “Spring” delight of Lensky is contrasted
of “solo on the trumpet”.
with Onegin’s “Autumn” boredom:

They got together; wave and stone, Pastoral

Verse and prose, ice and flame, The fourth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” is devoted to describ-
Were not so different from one another ing the life of Onegin in the village and his talk with Tatyana.
The life of Onegin can be fully interpreted as “Pastoral” and
In the second chapter, Olga and Tatiana first appear also illustrated with the next part of the suite:
opposed to each other. The portrait of Olga, painted by
Pushkin, looks like “Spring”: Imitating the songster of Gulnare,
Across this Hellespont he swam,
Always modest, always obedient, Then drank his coffee,
Always as merry as the morn, While he flipped through some wretched review,
As naive as a poet’s life, And dressed...
As winsome as love’s kiss her eyes, Rambles, and reading, and sound sleep,
As azure as the sky, smile, The sylvan shade, the purl of streams,
Flaxen locks, movements, Sometimes a white-skinned, dark-eyed girl’s
Voice, light waist Young and fresh kiss,
A horse of mettle, bridle-true,
Tatiana has a completely different character: A rather fancy dinner,
A bottle of bright wine,
Sauvage, sad, silent,
Seclusion, quietthis
As timid as the sylvan doe,
Was Onegin’s saintly life;
In her own family
She seemed a strangeling. The only splash of instruments in this part can be attributed
She knew not how to snuggle to the talk of Onegin with Tatiana:
Up to her father or mother;
A child herself, among a crowd of children, Your candidness appeals to me,
She never wished to play and skip, In me it has excited emotions
And often all day long, alone, Long grown silent.
She sat in silence by the window.
Military march
The third part of “The Snow Storm” is called “Spring and The next part of the suite “Marsh” stands out sharply against
Autumn”. It is divided into two parts with a common melody, other parts. But the fifth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” also
but completely different mood. The first part is quite suitable stands out in the novel. At first Tatiana sees a dream with
for the mood of Olga and Vladimir Lensky, as well for their monsters:
relationship. The second part should be the best musical
There is a crab astride a spider
characteristic for Tatyana. If the music reflects loneliness There on a goose’s neck
and sadness — it can be interpreted as “Autumn”, but it’s Twirls a red-calpacked skull;
not necessarily that music draws a season... it can be the There a windmill the squat-jig dances
character of some girl: sad, lonely, sitting by the window, And rasps and waves its vanes.
reading horrible tales in cold winter evenings. Barks, laughter, singing, whistling, claps,
6 Here
The parle of man, the stamp of steed!
and below. “Eugene Onegin”. Translation by Vladimir Nabokov.
These monsters are reflected at no less ugly behemoths,
but in the human face appearing on Tatiana’s name-day in
real life:
 Suite “The Snow Storm” by Georgy Sviridov, as a musical illustration for Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. — 4/5

The Skotinins, with children of all ages, is not good. It is quite another matter to study the notes on
Counting from thirty years to two the margins of books:
The district fopling, Petushkov;
Buyanov, my first cousin, Many pages preserved
Covered with fluff, in a peaked cap The trenchant mark of fingernails;
(As he, of course, is known to you); The eyes of the attentive maiden
And the retired counselor Flyanov, Are fixed on them more eagerly.
A heavy scandalmonger, an old rogue, Tatiana sees with trepidation
Glutton, bribetaker, and buffoon. By what thought, observation
Onegin would be struck,
And under the triumph of monsters in a dream and in real What he agreed with tacitly.
life, it is possible to include a parodic military “March” in The dashes of his pencil
contrast and sadness of Tatiana and her bold explanation She encounters in their margins.
in love and the pastoral life of Onegin. Under the rhythm Unconsciously Onegin’s soul
of the “March”, Vladimir Lensky calls Onegin to a duel and Has everywhere expressed itself
“demands a horse” ... a carriage to me a carriage ... half a Now by a succinct word, now by a cross,
Now by an interrogatory crotchet
kingdom for a horse ... “March” is performed tutti, as some
kind of opposite to solo. If the rest of “The Snow Storm”
Tatiana is getting acquainted with the echo of the time, to
suite relates to specific people: Onegin or Tatiana, the fifth
which the part “Waltz” belongs. The muffled tone of the music
chapter more likely describes the society surrounding them:
“Echo of the waltz”, reflects the atmosphere of the “Oneginsky
in relation to the heroes of the novel — this is tutti. Defeated
cell”:
Lensky is the victory of this society.
The desk with its extinguished lamp,
Wedding A pile of books, and at the window
The seventh part of “The Snow Storm” suite, “Wedding”, A carpet-covered bed,
the most sad and mysterious, it feels something ominous. And from the window the prospect through the lunar
According to music teachers, sixth graders note here an in- gloom,
comprehensible longing and anxiety, a premonition of trouble, And this pale half-light,
And Lord Byron’s portrait
something inevitable. In the sixth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”
a duel takes place and Lensky perishes. An music burst in the
part projected to the sixth chapter falls exactly on the duel Winter road
and death of the poet, musicologists compare these outbursts Having read Onegin wisdom, Tatyana goes to Moscow for
with “blows of fate”. The intonation and some musical motifs the bride’s fair: she need to marry someone anyway. Tatyana
resemble here the well-known F-Minor Bach choral prelude sits in a sleigh and rides in winter on a troyka. The last part
“Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ” footnote I call out to you, of the suite “The Snow Storm” is called “Winter Road”:
Jesus Christ (Ger.), BWV 639, used by producer Tarkovsky in
She does not go to meet the winter,
the film “Solaris”. The prelude of Bach F-Minor is written in
Inhale the frostdust,
the midtones, where a “wolf” or a fake quint occurs. This is a And with the first snow from the bathhouse roof
prelude for two hands and a pedal. The pedal is called “tutti”, Wash face, shoulders, and breast.
and the two hands are the participants in the duel. Intonation Tatiana dreads the winter way.
here is not so much an Orthodox choir as a Catholic organ.
It is believed that the theme of the prelude F-Minor is prayer Onegin at the very beginning of the novel rides “with
in despair, which is quite in tune with the lines of the sixth posters” that is quickly and with a breeze. The first part of
chapter of “Eugene Onegin”: “Troyka” begins loudly and sharply. Tatiana drags “with her
own horses, not with posters”.
Say: what sensation
Would take possession of your soul
The ringing of the suite
When, motionless upon the ground,
In front of you, with death upon his brow, The ninth part of the suite, “Winter Road”, begins very quietly,
He by degrees would stiffen, then music intensifies and the whole suite ends. If you listen
When he’d be deaf and silent the entire album in a ring, immediately after the end of the
To your desperate appeal? “Winter Road”, the first part of the suite “Troyka” with its
major beginning, as an uninterrupted continuation of the
Waltz echoes “Winter Road”. At the end of the seventh chapter, Tatyana
In the seventh chapter of “Eugene Onegin” Tatiana comes marries. Marriage is like a transition of a girl to a different
to Onegin’s house and, having received permission from the state. In Russian legends, marriage was associated with the
housekeeper, studies his life. In drafts to this chapter, Pushkin crossing of the bridge, through which the girl takes her fiancé.
wanted to include an outline of Onegin’s diaries, created Analogous symbols are present on the border between the
during his life in Petersburg, but reading other people’s diaries world of the living and the dead, which connects the “Kalinov
 Suite “The Snow Storm” by Georgy Sviridov, as a musical illustration for Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. — 5/5

Bridge” thrown across the River Smorodina. Tatyana in a In one of the first rooms of the exhibition “Rurikovichi”
dream carries a bear across a bridge, so he must become her from the cycle “Russia is my story”, to music of the Sviridov’s
husband. The girl marries the general and so becomes the suite “The Snow Storm” narrates how Prince Vladimir chose
general’s wife: “the grand and careless legislator of the hall”. faith for Russia. Note, that main characters of the Pushkins’s
In the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” Tatiana appears tale “The Snow Storm” and novel “Eugene Onegin ” have the
among the Petersburg light, where the feasts of Eugene began. same name “Vladimir”. Where would Russia bring a snow
This corresponds to the second part of the suite. Now “Waltz” storm, if Prince Vladimir chose something else? But, most
twists three: Onegin, Tatyana and her husband. All ages are interesting: who really created the suite “The Snow Storm”,
to love submissive, but the love of “Spring” and the love of if the composer George Sviridov never considered it in the
“Autumn” are different, like the two halves of the third part context of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”?
of “The Snow Storm” — “Spring and Autumn”:

All ages are to love submissive

But to young virgin hearts
Its impulses are beneficial
As are spring storms to fields.
They freshen in the rain of passions,
And renovate themselves, and ripen,
And vigorous life gives
Both rich bloom and sweet fruit.
But at a late and barren age,
At the turn of our years,
Sad is the trace of a dead passion...
Thus storms of the cold autumn
Into a marsh transform the meadow
And strip the woods around

Onegin’s love for Tatiana falls on the fourth part of the

suite “Romance”, their last talk for “Pastoral” and storm of
sensations in which after this dipped Evgeny, is accompanied
by a “Military march” — Tatyana’s victory.

WHO IS THE REAL AUTHOR OF “THE SNOW STORM”

SUITE?
Sviridov wrote an illustration to the story “The Snow Storm”,
but it turned out to “Eugene Onegin”: than is not the real
“Blizzard story”? At the very end of the film “The Snow Storm”
voice behind the scene says: “What kind of stories do you
hear while riding?”. Alexander Galich has a song called “A
terrible story, overheard in the roadside dive bar”. During the
vacation, one responsible officer, a Russian, a member of the
CPSU, a major, lost his passport and, for laughs, in the fifth
column, where the nationality was indicated in Soviet times,
he wrote a “Jew”. Because of this comic record in the official
document, the attitude to him in the society has changed so
dramatically that with his passport, he lost all his life. The
song ends like this:

And went here, my friends,

At least lie down at least a voice howling!..
I now live in Kaluga,
Non-party, erk!
I now have one road,
I have no other way: —
Where is, guys, the synagogue?
Tell me how to get through!7
7 My own free translation of Alexander Galich