Wagner and His Music-Dramas

by Robert C. Bagar

Wagner with Franz Liszt and Liszt’s daughter, Cosima, ex-wife of the conductor Hans von Bülow, whom Wagner married in 1870.

The Wagner villa, Wahnfried, at Bayreuth, scene of the Wagnerian Festivals.
Publisher’s Photo Service

The ethical essence of Parsifal has thus been expressed: “Enlightenment coming through conscious pity brings salvation.” Wagner, whose earlier music-dramas each revolved about some idée fixe of philosophical or moral implication, brought to Parsifal, besides, religious elements derived from the twin sources of Christian doctrine and Buddhism. Some years before he had done the sketch for a play on the subject of Jesus of Nazareth, and, parenthetically, it is quite likely that he had no intention to write music for it. Nevertheless, here is shown the composer’s religious urge, mingled with other aspects of his creative bent. He says, “I was burning to write something that should take the message of my tortured brain, and speak in a fashion to be understood by present life. Just as with my Siegfried, the force of my desire had borne me to the fount of the Eternal Human: so now, when I found this desire cut off by modern life from all appeasement, and saw afresh that the sole redemption lay in flight from out this life, casting off its claims on me by self-destruction, did I come to the fount of every modern rendering of such a situation—Jesus of Nazareth, the Man.”

During that period Wagner drafted another play, which he titled Die Seger (The Victors), one of Buddhistic import, whose story centers on the dictum that Prakriti, the hero, may not become one with Amanda, the heroine, unless he “shares the latter’s vow of chastity.” In these two works may be found qualities and tones of thought also incorporated in Parsifal.

The locale of Parsifal is Montsalvat in the Spanish Pyrenees. The castle of the Holy Grail is tenanted by a company of Knights, guardians of the Spear which pierced Jesus’ side as He hung on the Cross, and of the Cup He drank from the Last Supper and which received His precious blood from the Spear-wound. This brotherhood of Knights of the Grail refuses membership to all, save the pure in heart, and the Knights go about the world doing good through the high powers given them by the Grail.

A certain other knight, Klingsor, sinful and scheming, enraged against the Knights for having been denied admission to the Brotherhood, has built a magic garden, whose many charms have proved strong enough to tempt several of the weaker-willed Knights. Amfortas, king of the Grail, is one of these. He has fallen victim to the wiles of Kundry, a creature of Klingsor. The latter has seized the Spear from Amfortas and has humiliated him further by wounding him with it. The wound may be cured only by being touched with the point of the Spear held by a Guileless Fool, a youth who can withstand all temptation. This youth, of course, is Parsifal, a forest lad who enters into the picture through having killed a swan sacred to the Grail. Parsifal is made to go through the rituals prescribed by the libretto; namely, he is present at the ceremony of the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper without grasping anything of its meaning; he resists the lures thriving in Klingsor’s garden; then he seizes the Spear, flung at him by Klingsor and, as he makes the sign of the cross, the garden is destroyed. He wanders about the world and returns to Montsalvat. Kundry, now a repentant woman dedicated to the Grail’s service, washes his feet and dries them with her hair. Next he goes with Gurnemanz to the temple where he restores Amfortas to health, and, as the latter bends before him in homage, Kundry dies. Having thus attained “enlightenment ... through conscious pity,” Parsifal has become the saviour of Montsalvat.

The Prelude is an abbreviated exposition of the purposes, musical and dramatic, of the opera. It opens with the phrase which dominates the religious scene of the first act during the feast of the Lord’s Supper. The phrase, sung first in unison by violins, ’cellos, English horn, clarinet and bassoons, is marked sehr langsam (Lento assai), A-flat major, 4-4. It is taken up by trumpet, oboes, and half the first and second violins to the accompaniment of arpeggios in the violas and the other violins, and chords for flutes, clarinets, and English horn with the bassoons and horns sustaining harmony notes. After a series of broken chords, the trombones and trumpets announce a second theme, the Grail motive, which is a phrase long known as the Dresden Amen of the Saxon liturgy. There is a change of tempo to 6-4 with the entrance of a third theme, that of Faith. Its first figure is frequently repeated against changing harmonies. A fourth theme appears, suggestive of the suffering of Christ and Amfortas, which originates in the Lord’s Supper motive; its first two measures are also employed to characterize the Spear. In the words of Maurice Kufferath, “Like the Prelude to ‘Lohengrin,’ the introduction to ‘Parsifal’ is developed by successive degrees until it reaches a maximum of expression, thereafter to diminish imperceptibly to a pianissimo. Thus the synthesis of the whole drama is clearly exposed. That which remains is merely a peroration, a logical, necessary conclusion brought about by the ideas associated with the different themes.”

The music of the Transformation Scene in this act is that which is played during the walk of the venerable Gurnemanz and Parsifal through the wood to the Hall of the Grail. The music is of a march-like quality for a spell, subsequently gradually expanding in color and richness to the climactic theme representative of the Penitence of Amfortas, which is given out three times in succession.

The Grail Scene follows. There is the tolling of bells, the Grail Knights march into the hall in stately fashion. One hears the chanting of boys in the lofty dome. The ritual is interrupted by the impassioned song of Amfortas, who, suffering great torment, begs his father, Titurel, in words of self-abasement, to celebrate the Communion in his place. Titurel answers, however, “Serve thou, and so thy guilt atone! Uncover the Grail!” Presently the ceremony is ended, the knights have departed, and only Gurnemanz and Parsifal remain. The former inquires of the latter how much of the proceedings he has understood. The youth’s only answer is to clutch at his heart and shake his head. Gurnemanz, who by this time is convinced that Parsifal is truly a fool, sends him away angrily and then follows the Knights out the door. From somewhere above an unseen singer delivers the motive of the Pure Fool. The theme of the Grail is sung by still other voices. Bells peal once again. The act ends.