Rough draft of one of Wagner’s last compositions, dedicated to his wife, Cosima.
It is interesting to note that these excerpts from Parsifal represent the only ones authorized by Wagner for concert performance.
Good Friday Spell from “Parsifal”
The Good Friday Spell is placed at the end of the first scene in Act III of the opera. Gurnemanz is now an old hermit who lives in a humble abode at the edge of a forest. He comes out of the hut when he hears a groaning sound in the distance. Presently Parsifal arrives. He is a knight clad in black armor, carrying the sacred spear and a buckler. He is weary. The old Gurnemanz plies him with questions, but Parsifal will not answer until he is apprised of the fact that it is Good Friday. Whereupon he drives the spear into the ground, removes his helmet, and kneels in prayer.
Subsequently Kundry fetches water and washes his feet and anoints him with holy oil. And Gurnemanz, recognizing in him the Guileless Fool now worthy of the title King of the Grail, blesses him and greets him as the king. They soon set out for Montsalvat.
The music of the Good Friday Spell comprises thematically a hymn of thanksgiving, the music of Kundry’s Sigh, of the Holy Supper, of the Spear, of the Grail, of the Complaint, of the Flower Girls. All of these are finally fused into a pastoral poem ending with the Good Friday melody, which is suddenly interrupted by the doleful sound of bells. During Gurnemanz’s blessing of Parsifal, horns, trumpets and trombones play the Parsifal motive. This is given out in an impressive manner, and it leads into the Grail theme. There follows a series of chords which usher in the motives of Baptism and Faith.