Wagner's Parsifal: Musical Form and the Drama of Redemption

Author(s): William Kinderman

Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1985 - Autumn, 1986), pp. 431-446
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763750 .
Accessed: 05/11/2013 15:05

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Musicology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 WAGNER'S PARSIFAL:
MUSICAL FORM AND THE DRAMA OF REDEMPTION*

WILLIAM
KINDERMAN

In his essay, "TheMainStreamof Music,"DonaldFrancisToveywrote

that "the revolution effected by Wagner is not less important-or, as
Kant would say, not less Copernian-than any previous event in musical
history. It concerns the time-scale of music .... Wagner's achievement
consisted in refashioningthe whole textureand form of music until it cov-
ered the dramaon a time-scale measuredby hours instead of minutes."1
As evidence of Wagner's concern with musical form on the largest scale,
Tovey pointed to the presence of massive recapitulationsin Tristanand in
the Ring, yet nowherein his writingsdid he describein detail the procedures
which made possible this enormousexpansion of the time-scale of music,
enabling Wagnerto equate the developmentof music with the development
of the entire drama. Nor has this importantmatterreceived much attention
in the vast literatureon Wagner. As Anthony Newcomb recently pointed
out, the large-scale formal context of the later music dramas is a topic
conspicuously avoided in most scholarshipsince Lorenz.2
The shortcomingsof the analyses of Lorenz, or of traditionalanalysis
of Wagner's works according to leitmotives, on the other hand, may be
due in partto the inadequacyof Wagner'searliertheoreticalconcepts when
appliedto his latermusic. Wagner'sown discussionsof the "poetic-musical
period" and of "motives of reminiscence," for instance, appear in his
treatise Opera and Drama from 1851. The term "poetic-musical period"
was employed only once by Wagner, but it has sidetrackedmuch analysis
since Lorenz used it to justify his division of the music into a succession
of closed schematic forms.3 Not surprisingly,the analyses of Lorenz have
been shown to be almost always artificial,if not downrightinaccurate.Such
attemptsinevitably run counter to larger formal continuities in the music.
Analogous difficulties confrontan analyticalapproachbased on leitmotives.
As Jack Stein and others have pointed out, true motives of reminiscence
largely disappearin Tristanand later works, where the motives undergo a
more complex musical development, and rarely can be assigned dramatic

*Versions of this study were read at the FourthBritish Conferenceon 19th-CenturyMusic, Gold-
smiths' College, Universityof London, July 1984, and at the annualmeeting of the NorthwestChapter
of the AmericanMusicological Society, University of Victoria, April 1985.
'The Main Stream of Music and OtherEssays (London, 1949), pp. 350-51.
2'The Birth of Music out of the Spirit of Drama," 19th-CenturyMusic IV (1981), 39-40, 46 (n.
16).
3See Rudolph Stephan, "Gibt es ein Geheimnis der Form bei RichardWagner?," in Das Drama
Richard Wagnersals musikalischesKunstwerk,Studien zur Musikgeschichtedes 19. Jahrhunderts,vol
23 (Regensburg, 1970), p. 16. The analyses of Lorenz were publishedas Das Geheimnisder Form bei
Richard Wagnerin four volumes (Berlin, 1924-33; rpt. Tutzing, 1966).
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 431

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
432 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

labels that are consistently appropriate.4Neither revision of Lorenz, nor

analysis in terms of leitmotives provides an adequatebasis for analysis of
Wagner's later works.
A more promising approach would give attention to the large-scale
tonal procedureswhich enabled Wagner to equate the developmentof his
music with the developmentof the entire drama.For a majorinnovationof
Wagner's works beginning with Tristanconsists of his techniqueof pairing
two tonalities and using the tension thus created for dramaticeffect.5 At
the end of the first act of Tristan, for example, Wagneremploys a pairing
and alternationof A minor and C major to underscorethe dichotomy be-
tween the realm of the lovers and the externalworld, the dreadedrealm of
"Day."6 Another, more involved instanceof this techniqueis found in the
last act of Siegfried, where Briinnhilde'sawakeningis articulatedby a tonal
pairing passing from E to C. Later in the Ring cycle, in the last act of
Gotterdimmerung, this modulatoryframeworkbased on E and C again
assumes outstandingimportanceas the basis for organizationof a massive
recapitulatorysynthesis centered aroundSiegfried's death scene.7
The subjectof this study will be the musical and dramaticdevelopment
of Wagner's last work, Parsifal, using the concept of tonal pairing as a
point of departure.In this case, a tonal pairing of A-flat and C serves as
a basis of organizationfor much of the music associated with the Grail,
reflecting the development and eventual resolution of dramatic tensions
spanning the entire course of the work. The central dramatictension in
Parsifal consists of the threatto the Orderof the Grail posed by the plight
of Amfortas, whose festeringwound opens afreshwhen he reveals the Grail
at the CommunionService. This threatto the Grail is removed only in Act
III, when Parsifal appears as redeemer, bringing the Holy Spear gained
during his victorious encounter with Kundry and Klingsor in Act II. In
orderto embody this dramatictension in the music, Wagnerjuxtaposes the
sonorities of A-flat major and C minor in the first and primary theme
associated with the Grail, the theme heard at the beginning of the prelude
to Act I. This is the so-called "Last Supper" or "Communion" theme,
which is comprisedof several motives capableof independentdevelopment
(see Example 1).
Wagnerhimself once describedthis theme as symbolic of the theologic
virtue of "Love," though he also indicatedon anotheroccasion that "the

4See J. Stein, Richard Wagnerand The Synthesisof the Arts (Detroit, 1960), pp. 93-97; 127-30;
145-47.
5Forthe concept of "tonal pairing" in Wagner'smusic I am indebtedto ProfessorRobertBailey.
The concept has been discussed in detail and exemplified in two recentarticleson the Ring and Tristan.
See W. Kinderman, "Dramatic Recapitulationin Wagner's G6tterdimmerung;"19th-CenturyMusic
IV (1980), 101-12; "Das 'Geheimnis der Form' in Wagners Tristan und Isolde," Archivfur Musik-
wissenschaftXL (1983), 174-88.
6This relationship is discussed by Lorenz in Das Geheimnis der Form, vol. II, p. 7. A more
detailed discussion is given in R. Bailey, The Genesis of Tristanund Isolde and a Studyof Wagner's
Sketches and Draftsfor the First Act (Ph.D. diss., Princeton, 1969), pp. 147-59; 239-41.
7See W. Kinderman,"DramaticRecapitulation,"op. cit., 101-12.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 433

Example 1.

Sehrlangsam Communion
Theme
sehr ausdrulckvoll
Str u Hbl.

J - '_J j
t \ pitiP

(,b,b --
-
* B. Die Sechzehneelimmerruhig und velrn,o,'

i{bE'Jb!
Str.

cX t Pos Pk.

pain of Amfortas is contained in it."8 Both elements seem to be reflected

in its motivic structure.The first two bars of this unaccompaniedtheme
rise in a suspended, syncopatedrhythmthroughthe A-flat-majortriad and
stepwise throughthe octave; stress on the strong beats of the meter occurs
only in bar 3, where the descending semitone a-flat-g brings the change
in harmonyto C minor. This downwardshift of a semitone is emphasized
not only by the rhythmof the passage, but by the crescendo to forte in the
thirdbar;a decrescendoto piano marksthe returnto A-flat and to the initial
syncopated melodic idiom in the last bars of the theme. The harmonic
tension createdby this strikinginflection casts a shadow of ambiguityover
the tonic key of A-flat major, which sounds, momentarily, like the flat
sixth of C minor. As is later made clear, this tension introducedby the
motive in bar 3 after the stable beginning in A-flat embodies in germinal
form the dramaticrelationshipbetween the anguished, sinful condition of
Amfortas, on the one hand, and the purity of the Grail, on the other.9
A-flat majorand C minorare used in the tonal structureof the opening
of the prelude as keys for the largerthematicstatements,each of which is
twenty barslong. In turn,this key relationshipparallelsthe tonal framework
of the entire act, which closes in the major mode of C. In this case, as
elsewhere in Wagner's later works, the initial tonal areas of the prelude
8For the reference to "Liebe" in connection with the Communiontheme, see the programmatic
commentaryon the preludesent by Wagnerto Ludwig II, in connection with a privateperformanceon
12 Nov. 1880 in Munich, reproducedin Richard Wagner Samtliche Werke, vol 30, Dokumente zu
Entstehungund ersten Auffiihrungdes BuhnenweihfestspielsParsifal, ed. MartinGeck and Egon Voss
(Mainz, 1970), p. 45. With referenceto the later appearanceof the Communiontheme in the first Grail
Scene, CosimaWagnerwrote in her diaryon 10 August 1877 the following: '"Die SchmerzenAmfortas'
sind darinenthalten' sagt mir R." (reproducedin ibid., p. 24).
9A chromaticintensificationof this descending semitone is alreadyevident in the statementof the
Communion theme in C minor, where the semitone c-bNis stressed twice, in different registers, and
fully exploited in the expandedversion of the theme at the end of the prelude,foreshadowingthe lament
of Amfortas.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
434 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

signal the polar tonalities of the act to follow.'0 In Parsifal, this represents
one aspect of a general musical foreshadowingin the prelude of the first
Grail Scene at the end of the act.
All of the music of the preludeis associated with the Grail and serves
to anticipate the scene in the Temple. Thus the opening statementsfrom
the prelude of the Communiontheme in the keys of A-flat major and C
minor are recapitulatedin these same keys in the Grail Scene, where they
are sung to the Communion text. Two other motives from the prelude,
which Wagner associated with the theological virtue of "Faith," are also
prominentin the Temple Scene (the initial appearanceof these motives is
shown in Example 2, where they are designatedas the "Grail" motive and
"Faith" motive, respectively).'1

Example 2.
"Grail" Motive

I
}Mp v- f /-F
I

. B.Ohne Crescendo

"Faith" Motive

T A A
'2i rp.ir. A A A A

Pke ^
^

The most telling and dramaticallysignificant anticipationof the Grail

Scene is containedin the last section of the prelude, however. This passage
foreshadowsthe music of Amfortas's great lament, as well as a numberof
other passages associated with Amfortas, and it also preparesthe transition
from the TransformationMusic into the Grail Scene.
This final section of the preluderepresentsa developmentof the open-
ing Communion theme, which is greatly expanded from within. Its first
threebarsare treatedsequentially,with the motive fromthe thirdbarserving
as a pivot for modulationsto keys rising in thirds. This tonal framework
therebyparallels on a largerstructurallevel the intervallicpatternof rising
thirdsin the theme itself. Subsequently,the increasinglychromatictexture

"'Forother examples of this procedurein Wagner, see RobertBailey, "The Structureof the Ring
and Its Evolution," 19th-CenturyMusic 1 (1977), 59.
"See Wagner's programmaticcommentaryon the preludecited above, op. cit., p. 45.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 435

of the passage culminatesin the isolation and developmentof the descend-

ing semitone figure at its original pitch level, a-flat-g (see Example 3).
Here, the semitone is reinterpretedas an ascending appoggiaturaand re-
peated threefold. Syncopationsand diminished and minor harmoniescon-
tributeto the expressive intensity of the passage. At the end of Amfortas's
torturednarrativein the Grail Scene, this poignantappoggiaturawill be set
to the two syllables of "Wunde" ("wound").
The chromaticintensityof this passage abatesas the music approaches
the cadence in A-flat, correspondingto bar 6 of the original theme, in the
closing bars of the prelude. Here again, the thematic model of the Com-
munion theme is greatly expanded: the cadential dominant chord is pro-
tractedfor eight bars, while the serene, rising triadic figure penetratesthe
highest register in the violins. Yet the expected cadence in A-flat is not
granted:as the curtainopens, trombonesbehind the stage sound the head
of the Communiontheme on the pitch level of f-flat, with the effect of a
deceptive cadence. The diatonicrise throughthe octave dropschromatically
from f-flat to e-flat, throughthe same crucial descending semitone figure
that will remain attachedto this theme until Parsifal's returnof the Holy
Spear in Act III.
In Parsifal, as in Tristan, the denial and postponementof cadence
provides a means of sustainingmusical tension on the largestscale, thereby
reflecting the progress of the drama. The definitive cadence in Tristan is
postponeduntil Isolde's transfiguration in the closing momentsof the drama;
only here is the inherentambiguityand instabilityof the music associated
with the lovers and the realm of Night fully resolved.12 In Parsifal, by
contrast, it is the music associated with the Grail that undergoes an anal-
ogous process of resolution in the key of A-flat when its elements of
intrinsicambiguityand instabilityare eventuallyremoved. In the first Grail
Scene this not yet the case. Accordingly, the music of the processional
entrance into the Temple of the Grail is markedby a striking modulation
to C, which then becomes primaryin the tonal pairing.
The transitionis accomplishedthroughtwo modified appearancesof
the deceptive cadence from the end of the prelude(see Example 4). In the
third bar of the example, the circle of fifths progression, having reached
the dominant of A-flat, resolves deceptively to f-flat as the trombones
behind stage play the beginning of the Communiontheme, ending in the
semitone descent to e-flat in the fifth bar. Moments later, the sequential
restatementof this motive a minor third lower in the trombones outlines
the semitone d-flat-c, opening the gateway to C major, which is articu-
lated by the fixed pitches of the Temple bells. The remainderof the scene
is framedby the processionalmotive heardin the bells, in their associated
tonality of C major.

12Thispassage provides a resolution of musical tensions extending throughoutthe entire work,

reachingback to the beginningof the preludeto Act I. See W. Kinderman,"Das 'Geheimnisder Form'
in WagnersTristanund Isolde," op. cit., 174-88.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
436 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Example 3.
etwasgedehnt
V.Orch. V.H.

I~~
f d
-
im. ' -_P
p

{--r r r 0fr b

pi -ps-mpr-----------------------------------------------------------------

. . .^ . . , =gi
. rff
(Dr
_b~~~~~7j
-- . d
. . .
orhang z

5b . * *b E ia. *

*
^-^-.
-^ -_i------ =-- -

TF/ jy HbI
_------^f[f/f"flP

*B. ElKaSfreiim Tem_po

yb"-b
s-_s,{
6 - . Y
f
' ! ^1,=I
- ' _ I 8 Vk
He! Ho! Wald-hii-terihr, Schlaf-hu-ter mit-
Das vorige ZeitmaB: langsam. ~ Trp. a.d.B.
Pos.aufder Buhne. mL --- e .

f sehrgehalten
Str. pizz.

: l,b- - - Ij -

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 437

Posaunen auf der Buhne

Example 4.
9: b r I-
ff
I
r, LJ-l Za ti 1L L I

r ii^

if dim.

dim.----...----.....-------..-.-.------- ------ -------

---------
dim.- - ...----....-......
-----------p crc. ------------------------
cresc.

! .---.- ft 8 - -----
7romp. u. Pos. (aufder Buhne)

'
iff 'dimf p ,_4 Gurnemanz
- I --------------------------------------
;tS. (-~l F-F inLn Nuii Lwohl!
Nun ach-te
ach-te wohl. und laB mich
und la3 mich

Gurviermal Str. nemanz

- --0 *I- J ^J I
(f-
I :

^)r1f d 1
im
1p 1 JJ 11111 sJ LJ

(Glocken.) wiederholen.

P dim.
Anwachsendcsund ahnchmendesGlockengelaute.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
438 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Dramatically, the center of gravity of this first Grail Scene is less in

the ritualisticpassages than in the lament of Amfortasimmediatelypreced-
ing the CommunionService. Amfortasat first refuses to performhis duty.
The core of his narrativeis a descriptionof his experience at a previous
service when the Grail was revealed. In the music of this passage, the so-
called Grail motive appearsin C major, followed by the head of the Com-
munion theme treateddevelopmentally,beginning in C minor. This devel-
opmentalpassage was foreshadowedin the final section of the prelude;both
passages give strikingemphasis to the chromaticmotive in the thirdbar of
the Communiontheme, which is exploited to reflect the inevitableopening
of the wound wheneverAmfortasis confrontedwith the purityof the Grail.
This hopeless predicamentof Amfortas can be remedied only throughthe
interventionof a witness to the scene. "The pure fool," Parsifal.

II
In a letter to MathildeWesendonkwrittenduringthe composition of Tris-
tan, on 30 May 1859, Wagner describes the figure of Amfortas as "my
Tristan of the third act with an inconceivable intensification."13Later in
the same letter he writes:

And yet there is still another difficulty with the character of Parzival: he is
absolutely indispensable as the chosen redeemer of Amfortas: but should Am-
fortas be shown in a true, revealing light, he will be of such enormous tragic
interest, that it will be more than difficult to create another main interest against
him, and yet this principal interest must be centered in Parzival, if he is not to
appear at the end as a cold Deus ex machina.14

Nearly two decades after this letter was written, Wagner faced the
challenge of transferringthe principaldramaticinterest from Amfortas to
Parsifal in musical terms. A crucial aspect of this dramaticprogression
would be the treatmentof Parsifal'sresponseto Kundry'sseductionattempt
in Act II such that it project not utter passivity on the part of Parsifal, but
self-possession, shown throughhis identificationwith and compassion for
Amfortas and his conscious realizationof the natureof his mission. This
action is internaland psychological and, thereby, heavily dependenton the
music for its expression.
This moment in the dramaparallels and combines aspects of two cli-
mactic passages in the Ring cycle: Briinnhilde'sawakeningin Siegfriedand
Siegfried's later recollection of her awakeningjust before his death in G6t-

13"mein Tristan des dritten Aktes mit einer undenklichen Steigerung." See Richard Wagner.
WesendonkBriefe, ed. Julius Kapp (Leipzig, 1915), p. 207.
14"und noch dazu hat's mit dem Parzival eine Schwierigkeitmehr. Er ist unerlasslichnotig als
der ersehnte Erloser des Amfortas: soll Amfortas aber in das wahre, ihm gebiihrendeLicht gestellt
werden, so wird er von so ungeheuertragischemInteresse, dass es mehr als schwer wird, ein zweites
Hauptinteressegegen ihm aufkommen zu lassen, und doch miisste dieses Hauptinteressesich dem
Parzivalzu wenden, wenn er nicht als kalt lassenderDeus ex machinaeben nur schliesslich hinzutreten
sollte." (ibid., p. 210).

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 439

terddmmerung.Like the young Siegfried's encounterwith Briinnhilde,Par-

sifal's encounterwith Kundryis deeplypsychologicalin a manneranticipating
Freud;Kundry's kiss is "the last mother's greeting" as well as the "first
kiss of love." At the same time, Parsifal'srecollectionof and identification
with Amfortas parallels Siegfried's identificationwith Briinnhildeimme-
diately before his death. Both become oblivious of their surroundingsand
wholly absorbedin theirvision as somethingmorereal thanexternalreality.
Parsifal might be regarded as the last of a long line of Wagnerian
characters-reaching back to Senta in TheFlying Dutchman-who undergo
a symbolic "transfiguration"in the course of the drama. But the transfig-
urationof Parsifalfrom the naive youth of Act I into redeemergoes further
in this respect than any of Wagner's earlier works. In Tristan, and in the
Ring, Wagner allied the transfigurationsof Isolde and Siegfried, respec-
tively, with the dramatictheme of the promise of salvation throughlove,
while giving striking emphasis to this aspect of the drama through his
musical setting. The massive musical recapitulationsof Tristan and G6t-
terddmmerungserve precisely this end. Parsifal, by contrast, progresses
beyond the dramaticframeworkof these earlierworks;the Amfortasof Act
I correspondsto the Tristanof Act III, and the transfigurationof the char-
acter of Parsifal occurs in Act II, not as a final concluding gesture, as in
Isolde's tranfigurationor Siegfried's vision of Briinnhildebefore his death.
The transfigurationsof Siegfried and of Isolde representan endpointin the
dramaticprogression, or even a disappearanceof the characterfrom the
level of the visible action, as implied in Isolde's symbolic death. The corre-
sponding moment of the Parsifaldrama, on the other hand, is not an end-
point, but a new beginning:Parsifal'sdiscovery of the natureof his mission
as redeemer.
How, then, does Wagnerembody in his music this shift of the principal
dramaticinterest from Amfortas to Parsifal?The device of recapitulation
plays a crucial role. The last fifty bars of Parsifal's passage in response to
Kundry'skiss are to a considerableextent a variedrecapitulationof several
passages from Amfortas's lament in Act I. In particular,the Communion
theme is transferredto Parsifal, in C minor and A-flat minor, to reflect his
identificationwith Amfortasand his memory of the Savior's cry which led
him to the realm of the Grail. The use here of recapitulationis dramatically
apt, since it expresses Parsifal's capacity for compassion as his means of
insight into the plight of Amfortas, while transferringthe musical material
associatedwith the Grailto the futureleaderof the Order.Amfortas, it will
be recalled, is incapableof serving his office after the scene witnessed by
Parsifal in Act I.
In a sense, Kundry'sdelivery of the kiss is also a recapitulation,though
its musical setting is heardfor the first time in Act II. Before the beginning
of the drama, she had delivered the kiss to Amfortas, tempting him into
sin and allowing Klingsorto inflict the wound. It is significantin this regard
that the descending semitone so frequently heard in association with the
wound of Amfortas is derived from the chromatic motive of Kundry's

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
440 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

seduction (see Example 5). Kundry's motive circles around the dissonant
interval of the tritone; its circular motion evokes the image of the Biblical
5
serpent ready to strike. As Kundry embraces Parsifal, the ascending chro-
matics from her motive reach the semitone e-sharp-f-sharp, which is
repeated three times during the Kiss. On the third repetition, this f-sharp
become g-flat; the direction of the semitone is inverted. As Parsifal grips
his heart in anguish, we hear the motive from the third bar of the Com-
munion theme associated with the wound of Amfortas.

Example 5.

B. Parsifal
A + tiefftmatan

iW I I - I I I
^ r^
KuB. (Sie hat ihr Haupt vollig iber das scinige gencigt und heftet
nun ihre Lippen zu einen langen Kussc au seinen Mund)
Sehr langsam hK

.
~~(
te 3'p
pi
g
ot ;v . ~o. i
topi BJ.
r
.$ - -b- " f:
rX _ tIT' vx_

Pos
Hr. gedampft Pos.
I - I |

)9: $o . ~
-d-. I.
~ = - -1 ~
~V tAi ~
*- *
(heir tlihrt Parsifal plOtzlich mit eincr (eharde les huchsten Schreckens
auf: seine Haltung druickt eine furchthare Veriinderunl itus: er stcmmt scine
Hande gewaltsam gegen das Hcrz. wic urn einci zerreilcndcn Schmcrz

rp. . Pur.sifal sefcned

Hr. + Sehr belebendV.

B. Parsitfuzeighltiaf den Speer.

t S V b: t I: l'' I J - I
hchr: des Gra - les heil' - - -get Speer.

=
, , Hp t-- - - ---

.
,' 1 Hrt Po 1?

'gj*d. *- . * *.

15Itis interestingin this connection that an entry in Cosima's diary dated 3 June 1878 describes
Kundry'smotive as a "winding" or "serpentinemotive of love's desire" (" 'ein AugenblickDamon-
ischen Versenkens,' wie R. die Takte bezeichnet, welche den Kuss Kundry'sbegleiten, und worin das
tragische, wie Gift sich schlangelndeMotiv der Liebessehnsuchtvemichtend wirkt."). This passage is
cited in Richard Wagner. Samtliche Werke,vol 30, ed. M. Geck and E. Voss, op. cit., p. 33.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 441

The full symbolic significance of this musical setting of Kundry'skiss

seems to have been overlooked in the literatureon Parsifal, though the
motivic relationshipsthemselves have been carefullyexamined.16 This mo-
tivic derivationof the descending semitone of the Communiontheme from
Kundry'schromaticmusic points to the prehistoryof the drama-Kundry's
earlierseductionof Amfortas-as the dramaticsourceof these same musical
tensions from the beginning of the work. In this sense, the time-scale of
the music extends beyond the beginningof the drama.Kundry'skiss serves
then as the point of connectionbetween the heavenly, diatonicrealm of the
Grail and the diabolical, chromaticrealm of Klingsor;from her kiss comes
the "pollution of the sanctuary," reflected in the chromaticcontamination
in the third bar of the Communiontheme. Thus the crucial turning-point
of the drama comes in this replay of the earlier seduction scene, with
Parsifaltaking the place of Amfortas.
After receiving Kundry'skiss, Parsifalreacts by identifyingthe wound
of Amfortas with his own experience of the temptationof sin. The wound
of Amfortascan then be seen as a symbol, as the outward, visible embod-
iment of the inner, spiritualcondition of sin. This relationshipis expressed
musically through the initial derivationof the descending semitone from
Kundry, and its use moments later at Parsifal's exclamation, "Amfortas!"
Its clearest expression, however, is at the end of Parsifal's passage, where
the musical setting of his question, "How do I atone for my guilt?",
correspondsto the setting of Amfortas'swords, "close the wound," at the
end of his lament in Act I. Both of these passages, in turn, arise as a
development of the semitone motive first heard at the end of the prelude,
which in its turnis derivedfrom the chromaticinflection of the Communion
theme and, ultimately, from Kundry'spoisoned kiss.
The musical significanceof this relationshipextends even beyond these
examples, moreover, in a complex networkof passages spanningthe entire
work. The setting of Kundry'skiss had already been foreshadowedat the
same pitch level, for instance, in the music of Gurnemanz'snarrativein
Act I, where he describedthe seductionof Amfortasby Kundry.It is surely
not coincidental, furthermore,that the motivic fifth f-b-flat highlighted
in the music of Kundry's kiss recurs so prominentlyin Act III, in music
connected with the death and funeralprocession of Titurel, which is asso-
ciated tonally with B-flat minor. No less significantis the reappearanceof
the descending semitone g-flat-f at Kundry'sbaptismby Parsifal, where
the crucial pitch g-flat is reinterpretedenharmonicallyas f-sharp, and sub-
sequently resolved into B majorin the music of the "Good FridaySpell."
The most central relationship, however, is that connecting Parsifal's re-
sponse to Kundry's kiss with the Grail Scene in Act I. Here, the tonal
pairing of A-flat and C again assumes an importantrole.

'6A thorough discussion of the motivic relationshipsin Parsifal is contained in Hans-Joachim

Bauer, WagnersParsifal: Kriteriender Kompositionstechnik(Munich, 1977). For a recent discussion
of harmonic relationshipsin this setting of Kundry's kiss, see David Lewin, "Amfortas's Prayer to
Titureland the role of D in Parsifal: The Tonal Spaces of the Dramaand the EnharmonicCb/B," 19th-
CenturyMusic VII (1984), 348-49.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
442 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Parsifal's rejection of the temptationof sin, embodied in the kiss, is

paralleled by his identification with the Grail, as embodied in the two
appearancesof the Communiontheme in the keys of C minor and A-flat
minor. The first appearanceof the theme correspondsexactly, in key and
orchestration,to Amfortas's descriptionof the Communionservice in Act
I; according to Wagner's performancedirections, as transmittedby Felix
Mottl, Parsifalis at this point "totally in the state of being in which he has
seen Amfortas."17 Moments later, Parsifal's trance-likevision culminates
in his quotationof the Savior's cry which led him to the Grail: "Deliver,
rescue me from hands sullied by guilt!" ("Erl6se, rette mich aus schuld-
befleckten Handen!") (See Example 6). Accordingto Mottl, this line is to
be sung with "terrifyingexpression."18The unusualuse here of the minor
mode of A-flat contributesto the intensity of expression, as does the fact
that the chromatic turn to the C-minor harmonyof the theme is sung by
Parsifal himself. Once again, the words here refer to the sin of Amfortas
and not merely to its external manifestationin the wound. Only when this
sin is overcome can the diatonic purity of the Communiontheme be af-
firmed.

Example 6.
B.Etwa.svorrelend
Gurnemanz (in hochstcsEntzickenaushrhcnd)

0 Gna - de! Hoch - stes Hcil! O! Wuii-der!

/=- rf EL $f --- p.-= _

A o- F 1
L. tf

III
There is one decisive moment remainingin the developmentof the music
associated with the Grail: Parsifal's return with the Holy Spear and his
assumptionof the role of leader of the Order. Here, finally, the threatto
the Grail is removed; also removed is the chromaticcontaminationof the
Communiontheme. The tonal pairingis eliminatedin favor of a symphonic
synthesis and resolution of the motives of the Grail in A-flat major.
The motivic changein the Communionthemein Act III has been pointed
out by Lorenz and other analysts;the downwardsemitone of its third bar
is replaced by a rising whole tone.19 This new form of the Communion

17'ganz in dem Zustand, in dem er Amfortasgesehen hat." See the vocal score of Parsifal edited
and annotatedby Mottl (Frankfurt,London, New York: C.F. Peters, 1914, 1942), p. 187.
1'"mit furchtbaremAusdruck!" (Ibid., p. 187).
19SeeLorenz, Das Geheimnisder Form bei Richard Wagner,vol. IV (rpt. Tutzing, 1966), p. 14.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 443

theme appearswhen Parsifalpresents the spear to Gumemanz, and subse-

quently throughoutthe closing Grail Scene. The first appearanceof this
new version of the theme is shown in Example 7. Lorenz regarded this
change as the productof a new motivic combination, in which the series
of rising tones to the new resolutionoutlininga fourthcomprises a rhythm-
ically varied form of the "Spear" motive from bar 4 of the original Com-
munion theme (cf. Example 1, where the "Spear" motive consists of the
risingfourtha-flat--d-flat).10 This interpretation,
howeverpersuasive,leaves
out of accountthe broaderstructuraland dramaticimplicationsof the change,
which consists not of an assimilationof the "Spear" motive per se, but of
an alterationin one note, a purgingof the crucial descending semitone that
had representeda primarysource of musical tension throughoutthe drama.
Once again, an analogy might be drawnwith Tristan, in which the change
of a semitone in the harmonyof the crucial "Tristan" chord provides the
new sonority to be treatedas tonic when the ascending chromaticprogres-
sion from the first act preludeis transformedand resolved in Isolde's trans-
figuration.21In both cases, Wagner presents a theme at the outset of the
work containing elements of musical tension and complexity which are
identified throughoutwith the drama, and resolved only at its conclusion.
This is an essential aspect of Wagner's "Coperian revolution," in Tovey's
words, with its immense expansion of the time-scale of musical form. In
this equation of music and drama, the formal consolidationof the primary
musical complex occurs only at the end of the entire work, where it is
dramaticallymotivated.
In this sense, Anthony Newcomb's claim in a recent article that "the
essence of Wagnerianform lies in its ambiguity and incompleteness" is
somewhat misleading.22Ambiguity and incompletenessmay indeed char-
acterizethe form of limited sections or dramaticscenes in the music dramas;
in these works a dramaticscene rarely provides a discrete unit of organi-
zation for the musical setting. The musical form as such is identified with
the entire drama, as Wagner himself pointed out in his essay "On the
Applicationof Music to the Drama" of 1879:
The new type of dramatic music, in order to comprise an artwork as music,
must nevertheless attain the unity of a symphonic movement. This will be achieved
when it spreads itself by means of the deepest internal relationships over the
entire drama, not just over small, isolated, arbitrarily separated parts of the
whole.23

20SeeLorenz, ibid., pp. 13-14. The headof the Communiontheme with this new upwardresolution
has often been described in the literatureas the "Redemption" motive.
21SeeKinderman,"Das 'Geheimnisder Form' in WagnersTristanundIsolde," op. cit., 184-86.
22"The Birth of Music Out of the Spirit of Drama," op. cit., 64.
23"Dennochmuss die neue Formder dramatischenMusik, um wiederumals Musik ein Kunstwerk
zu bilden, die Einheit des Symphoniesatzesaufweisen, und diess erreichtsie, wenn sie, im innigsten
Zusammenhangemit demselben, iiberdas ganze Dramasich erstreckt,nicht nur iibereinzelne kleinere,
willkiirlichherausgehobeneTheile desselben," RichardWagner.GesammelteSchriften.vol. 10 (Berlin,
1907), p. 185.

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
444 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Example 7.

Hbl. Hr.
A I.

(4y5,' i' r
{? re.. -

b i"
lsb 'P"

&. *

A 8-

.
$cb.

dim. ---------------------------------
drp. Po S. ......

di ----------------------------------------

= -------
I

This procedureis demonstratedin works such as Tristanand Parsifal,

where a primary musical complex associated with central aspects of the
dramaundergoes a formal evolution prolonged over the entire durationof
the work. Not all the music is organized in relationshipto this primary
musical complex; episodic portionsof the drama,such as the Flower Maid-
ens' Scene in Parsifal, for instance, are given an appropriatelyepisodic
treatmentin the music. Passages comprisingthe primarymusical complex
can be heard in relationship to one another, even over vast stretches of
musical time, because parallels in the dramaticsituation are reflected by
the recall or reinterpretationof the same thematic material, reinforcedby
control of the tonality and orchestration.A special burdencarriedby this
musical complex is to convey in sound the resolutionof dramatictensions
at the conclusion of the work. Here, it is precisely the resolution of am-
biguities and strength of formal articulationin the music that plays an
indispensabledramaticrole.
In Parsifal, the primary musical complex associated with the Grail
undergoes a formal synthesis and resolution when the shrine is opened in
Act III. Essential to this resolution is the new version of the Communion
theme, cleansed of its descending semitone. Since this new version com-
prises only the first two bars of the originalCommuniontheme with a new

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 445

resolution, I shall refer to it as the Communionmotive. The Communion

motive parallels the "Spear" motive and the so-called "Grail" motive,
both of which contain a rising fourth, as well as the remaining motive
associated with the Grail, the so-called "Faith" motive, whose descending
fourthsare frequentlyinvertedto rising fourthsin the contrapuntaltexture.
In the closing music it becomes evident, for the first time, that all of the
motives associated with the Grail are closely relatedthematically.
At the same time, these relatedmotives arejoined to createlargerformal
units. The Grail, Communion,and Faith motives are all combinedin direct
rhythmicsuccession, formingtogetheran eight-barthematicstatementwhich
is treatedin sequence, leading to the imitative entries of the Communion
theme in the chorus, to the text "Erlosungdem Erloser!" ("Redeemed the
Redeemer!"). The formal and thematic integrationof this passage sym-
bolizes the spiritualwholeness of the redemption.Never before in the work
had such integrationbeen evident in the music associated with the Grail.
In the first act prelude, by contrast,these motives were merelyjuxtaposed,
without being directly connected to one another.
At the moment of Kundry'sdeath, Wagnerrecalls for the last time the
chromatic semitone relationship that had played such an importantrole
throughoutthe drama. As Kundrysinks lifeless to earth, the music shifts
upwardmelodically from a-flat to a-natural, heard as part of an A-minor
triad that is emphasized by the dynamics and orchestration. This is a
rhythmicallyaugmentedform of a progressionpreviously heard in associ-
ation with the chromaticsemitonein the thirdbarof the Communiontheme.
At its final appearanceat the end of Parsifal, this chromaticshift is absorbed
into a larger cadential progressionin A-flat major. When this cadence is
reached, the visual dramaticaction is at an end, and the stage curtainsare
slowly drawn closed. Fifteen bars of music remain, however, leading to
the final cadence of the work.
In the closing bars of Parsifal, the Grail and Communionmotives are
overlappedand combined to form the final cadence (see Figure 1 and Ex-
ample 8). In the first two bars of the example, the first half of the Grail
motive appearsin its rhythmicallyaugmentedform in the highest register.
This rhythmicallyaugmentedform of the motive, in a similar register and
orchestration,had been heard several times in the first Grail Scene of Act
I, and again in the closing momentsof Act II, where Parsifalmade the sign
of the cross, banishing Klingsor's evil magic. But whereas the tonality of
these earlier appearancesof the augmentedmotive was C major, it is now
heard in A-flat major, furtherresolving the tension of the tonal pairing.
The rest of the Grail motive is omitted in the final cadence, since its
pitches are duplicatedwhen the Communionmotive, heardon the subdom-
inant, rises stepwise from b-flat to e-flat, the dominantnote of the tonic
triad reached in the third-to-lastbar. In its pitch level on d-flat and or-
chestrationof trombonesand trumpets,this final appearanceof the Com-
munion motive correspondsexactly to its earlierappearanceat the moment
of entranceinto the Temple of the Grail in Act I (cf. Example 4). There,

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
446 THE JOURNALOF MUSICOLOGY

Figure 1.
Continuation of
(rhythnically Grail Motive omitted 1

"
Grail Motive
. augmented)
rA - Resolution

bi'b I .
&
_e

f-
19P

Ir tI
I

CoiIui
Co mli tturtion Motive

Example 8.

. . t t..
.[

(f*^i" i r .
v
p sI ... I ..

+ ..

1_1
/,,~'~ J~ ' |t'; IF; Lr l ~'I
l li
!'eLt
pi
~
A*^iij
cresc..
~ I I
6r-L.

P.

as we have seen, it resolved downwardby semitoneto c, as C majorbecame

primary in the tonal pairing. Here, by contrast, the Communion motive
resolves upwardto e-flat, in the final sonority of the work. The arrivalof
this final tonic chord of A-flat major thus provides the simultaneousres-
olution of the Grail and Communion motives, standing in place of the
dissonance that had representeda primarysource of musical tension from
the very beginning of the work, four hours earlier. In these closing bars,
both motives are subsumedinto the final subdominantcadence, completing
and perfecting the musical form as an audible symbol for the utopia of
redemption.

University of Victoria

This content downloaded from 164.73.224.2 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 15:05:08 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions