Wagner's Parsifal: Musical Form and the Drama of RedemptionAuthor(s): William KindermanSource: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1985 - Autumn, 1986), pp. 431-446Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763750Accessed: 27/07/2010 15:06

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WAGNER'S PARSIFAL: MUSICAL FORM AND THE DRAMA OF REDEMPTION*

WILLIAM KINDERMAN

In his essay, "The Main Stream of Music," Donald Francis Tovey wrote 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 refashioning the whole texture and form of music until it cov- ered the drama on a time-scale measured by 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 recapitulations in Tristan and in the Ring, yet nowhere in his writings did he describe in detail the procedures which made possible this enormous expansion of the time-scale of music, enabling Wagner to equate the development of music with the development of the entire drama. Nor has this important matter received much attention in the vast literature on Wagner. As Anthony Newcomb recently pointed out, the large-scale formal context of the later music dramas is a topic conspicuously avoided in most scholarship since Lorenz.2

The shortcomings of the analyses of Lorenz, or of traditional analysis of Wagner's works according to leitmotives, on the other hand, may be due in part to the inadequacy of Wagner's earlier theoretical concepts when applied to his later music. Wagner's own discussions of 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 sidetracked much 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 downright inaccurate. Such attempts inevitably run counter to larger formal continuities in the music. Analogous difficulties confront an analytical approach based on leitmotives. As Jack Stein and others have pointed out, true motives of reminiscence largely disappear in Tristan and 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 Fourth British Conference on 19th-Century Music, Gold- smiths' College, University of London, July 1984, and at the annual meeting of the Northwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society, University of Victoria, April 1985.

'The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays (London, 1949), pp. 350-51. 2'The Birth of Music out of the Spirit of Drama," 19th-Century Music IV (1981), 39-40, 46 (n.

16). 3See Rudolph Stephan, "Gibt es ein Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner?," in Das Drama

Richard Wagners als musikalisches Kunstwerk, Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, vol 23 (Regensburg, 1970), p. 16. The analyses of Lorenz were published as Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner in four volumes (Berlin, 1924-33; rpt. Tutzing, 1966).

WAGNER'S PARSIFAL 431

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labels that are consistently appropriate.4 Neither revision of Lorenz, nor analysis in terms of leitmotives provides an adequate basis for analysis of Wagner's later works.

A more promising approach would give attention to the large-scale tonal procedures which enabled Wagner to equate the development of his music with the development of the entire drama. For a major innovation of Wagner's works beginning with Tristan consists of his technique of pairing two tonalities and using the tension thus created for dramatic effect.5 At the end of the first act of Tristan, for example, Wagner employs a pairing and alternation of A minor and C major to underscore the dichotomy be- tween the realm of the lovers and the external world, the dreaded realm of "Day."6 Another, more involved instance of this technique is found in the last act of Siegfried, where Briinnhilde's awakening is articulated by a tonal pairing passing from E to C. Later in the Ring cycle, in the last act of Gotterdimmerung, this modulatory framework based on E and C again assumes outstanding importance as the basis for organization of a massive recapitulatory synthesis centered around Siegfried's death scene.7

The subject of this study will be the musical and dramatic development 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 organization for 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 dramatic tension in Parsifal consists of the threat to the Order of the Grail posed by the plight of Amfortas, whose festering wound opens afresh when he reveals the Grail at the Communion Service. This threat to 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 order to embody this dramatic tension in the music, Wagner juxtaposes 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 comprised of several motives capable of independent development (see Example 1).

Wagner himself once described this theme as symbolic of the theologic virtue of "Love," though he also indicated on another occasion that "the

4See J. Stein, Richard Wagner and The Synthesis of the Arts (Detroit, 1960), pp. 93-97; 127-30; 145-47.

5For the concept of "tonal pairing" in Wagner's music I am indebted to Professor Robert Bailey. The concept has been discussed in detail and exemplified in two recent articles on the Ring and Tristan. See W. Kinderman, "Dramatic Recapitulation in Wagner's G6tterdimmerung;" 19th-Century Music IV (1980), 101-12; "Das 'Geheimnis der Form' in Wagners Tristan und Isolde," Archiv fur Musik- wissenschaft XL (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 Tristan und Isolde and a Study of Wagner's Sketches and Drafts for the First Act (Ph.D. diss., Princeton, 1969), pp. 147-59; 239-41.

7See W. Kinderman, "Dramatic Recapitulation," op. cit., 101-12.

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WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

Example 1.

Sehr langsam Communion Theme sehr ausdrulckvoll Str u Hbl.

J - '_J j

\ piti P

(,b,b

t

-- - * B. Die Sechzehneel immer ruhig 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 unaccompanied theme rise in a suspended, syncopated rhythm through the A-flat-major triad and stepwise through the 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 harmony to C minor. This downward shift of a semitone is emphasized not only by the rhythm of the passage, but by the crescendo to forte in the third bar; a decrescendo to piano marks the return to A-flat and to the initial syncopated melodic idiom in the last bars of the theme. The harmonic tension created by this striking inflection casts a shadow of ambiguity over the tonic key of A-flat major, which sounds, momentarily, like the flat sixth of C minor. As is later made clear, this tension introduced by the motive in bar 3 after the stable beginning in A-flat embodies in germinal form the dramatic relationship between the anguished, sinful condition of Amfortas, on the one hand, and the purity of the Grail, on the other.9

A-flat major and C minor are used in the tonal structure of the opening of the prelude as keys for the larger thematic statements, each of which is twenty bars long. In turn, this key relationship parallels the 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 Communion theme, see the programmatic commentary on the prelude sent by Wagner to Ludwig II, in connection with a private performance on 12 Nov. 1880 in Munich, reproduced in Richard Wagner Samtliche Werke, vol 30, Dokumente zu Entstehung und ersten Auffiihrung des Buhnenweihfestspiels Parsifal, ed. Martin Geck and Egon Voss (Mainz, 1970), p. 45. With reference to the later appearance of the Communion theme in the first Grail Scene, Cosima Wagner wrote in her diary on 10 August 1877 the following: '"Die Schmerzen Amfortas' sind darin enthalten' sagt mir R." (reproduced in ibid., p. 24).

9A chromatic intensification of this descending semitone is already evident in the statement of the Communion theme in C minor, where the semitone c-bN is stressed twice, in different registers, and fully exploited in the expanded version of the theme at the end of the prelude, foreshadowing the lament of Amfortas.

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signal the polar tonalities of the act to follow.'0 In Parsifal, this represents one aspect of a general musical foreshadowing in the prelude of the first Grail Scene at the end of the act.

All of the music of the prelude is associated with the Grail and serves to anticipate the scene in the Temple. Thus the opening statements from the prelude of the Communion theme in the keys of A-flat major and C minor are recapitulated in 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 prominent in the Temple Scene (the initial appearance of these motives is shown in Example 2, where they are designated as the "Grail" motive and "Faith" motive, respectively).'1

Example 2.

"Grail" Motive

}Mp v- f /-F

. B. Ohne Crescendo

"Faith" Motive

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

Pke ^ ^

The most telling and dramatically significant anticipation of the Grail Scene is contained in the last section of the prelude, however. This passage foreshadows the music of Amfortas's great lament, as well as a number of other passages associated with Amfortas, and it also prepares the transition from the Transformation Music into the Grail Scene.

This final section of the prelude represents a development of the open- ing Communion theme, which is greatly expanded from within. Its first three bars are treated sequentially, with the motive from the third bar serving as a pivot for modulations to keys rising in thirds. This tonal framework thereby parallels on a larger structural level the intervallic pattern of rising thirds in the theme itself. Subsequently, the increasingly chromatic texture

"'For other examples of this procedure in Wagner, see Robert Bailey, "The Structure of the Ring and Its Evolution," 19th-Century Music 1 (1977), 59.

"See Wagner's programmatic commentary on the prelude cited above, op. cit., p. 45.

434

I

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of the passage culminates in the isolation and development of the descend- ing semitone figure at its original pitch level, a-flat-g (see Example 3). Here, the semitone is reinterpreted as an ascending appoggiatura and re- peated threefold. Syncopations and diminished and minor harmonies con- tribute to the expressive intensity of the passage. At the end of Amfortas's tortured narrative in the Grail Scene, this poignant appoggiatura will be set to the two syllables of "Wunde" ("wound").

The chromatic intensity of this passage abates as the music approaches the cadence in A-flat, corresponding to 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- tracted for eight bars, while the serene, rising triadic figure penetrates the highest register in the violins. Yet the expected cadence in A-flat is not granted: as the curtain opens, trombones behind the stage sound the head of the Communion theme on the pitch level of f-flat, with the effect of a deceptive cadence. The diatonic rise through the octave drops chromatically from f-flat to e-flat, through the same crucial descending semitone figure that will remain attached to this theme until Parsifal's return of the Holy Spear in Act III.

In Parsifal, as in Tristan, the denial and postponement of cadence provides a means of sustaining musical tension on the largest scale, thereby reflecting the progress of the drama. The definitive cadence in Tristan is postponed until Isolde's transfiguration in the closing moments of the drama; only here is the inherent ambiguity and instability of 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 intrinsic ambiguity and instability are eventually removed. In the first Grail Scene this not yet the case. Accordingly, the music of the processional entrance into the Temple of the Grail is marked by a striking modulation to C, which then becomes primary in the tonal pairing.

The transition is accomplished through two modified appearances of 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 Communion theme, ending in the semitone descent to e-flat in the fifth bar. Moments later, the sequential restatement of 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 remainder of the scene is framed by the processional motive heard in the bells, in their associated tonality of C major.

12This passage provides a resolution of musical tensions extending throughout the entire work, reaching back to the beginning of the prelude to Act I. See W. Kinderman, "Das 'Geheimnis der Form' in Wagners Tristan und Isolde," op. cit., 174-88.

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436 THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

Example 3.

etwas gedehnt V. Orch. V.H.

I~~ p f d -

im. ' -_P

{--r r r fr b 0

(Dr orhang rff

5b * *b . E ia. *

pi -p s-mpr-----------------------------------------------------------------

=gi -- _b~~~~~7j d z

^-^-. -^ *

=-- -_i------ -

T F/ jy _------^f[f/f"flP HbI

. . .^ . . , . . . . .

*B. El KaSfrei im Tem_po s- 6 _s,{ . f ! ^1,= y b"-b

- - ' _ I

Y 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 sehr gehalten

Str. pizz.

: l,b- - - Ij -

I

WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

Posaunen auf der Buhne

9: b r I-

ff

r, LJ-l Za L ti 1 I

r ii^

if dim.

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

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

dim.- .----...----.....-------..-.-.------- ...----....-...... cresc. ------------------------

, _4 Gurnemanz '

- I -------------------------------------- Nun ach-te wohl. und laB mich

iff 'dimf p

p

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

k I

^ )r JJ s J LJ

;tS (-~l . F L F- inLn

Gurviermal nemanz

Nuii ach-te wohl! und la3 mich

Str.

(Glocken.) wiederholen.

1f d im p 1 1 1 11111

P dim. Anwachsendcs und ahnchmendes Glockengelaute.

Example 4.

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I

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I

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Dramatically, the center of gravity of this first Grail Scene is less in the ritualistic passages than in the lament of Amfortas immediately preced- ing the Communion Service. Amfortas at first refuses to perform his duty. The core of his narrative is a description of his experience at a previous service when the Grail was revealed. In the music of this passage, the so- called Grail motive appears in C major, followed by the head of the Com- munion theme treated developmentally, beginning in C minor. This devel- opmental passage was foreshadowed in the final section of the prelude; both passages give striking emphasis to the chromatic motive in the third bar of the Communion theme, which is exploited to reflect the inevitable opening of the wound whenever Amfortas is confronted with the purity of the Grail. This hopeless predicament of Amfortas can be remedied only through the intervention of a witness to the scene. "The pure fool," Parsifal.

II

In a letter to Mathilde Wesendonk written during the 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."13 Later 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 transferring the principal dramatic interest from Amfortas to Parsifal in musical terms. A crucial aspect of this dramatic progression would be the treatment of Parsifal's response to Kundry's seduction attempt in Act II such that it project not utter passivity on the part of Parsifal, but self-possession, shown through his identification with and compassion for Amfortas and his conscious realization of the nature of his mission. This action is internal and psychological and, thereby, heavily dependent on the music for its expression.

This moment in the drama parallels and combines aspects of two cli- mactic passages in the Ring cycle: Briinnhilde's awakening in Siegfried and Siegfried's later recollection of her awakening just before his death in G6t-

13"mein Tristan des dritten Aktes mit einer undenklichen Steigerung." See Richard Wagner. Wesendonk Briefe, ed. Julius Kapp (Leipzig, 1915), p. 207.

14"und noch dazu hat's mit dem Parzival eine Schwierigkeit mehr. Er ist unerlasslich notig als der ersehnte Erloser des Amfortas: soll Amfortas aber in das wahre, ihm gebiihrende Licht gestellt werden, so wird er von so ungeheuer tragischem Interesse, dass es mehr als schwer wird, ein zweites Hauptinteresse gegen ihm aufkommen zu lassen, und doch miisste dieses Hauptinteresse sich dem Parzival zu wenden, wenn er nicht als kalt lassender Deus ex machina eben nur schliesslich hinzutreten sollte." (ibid., p. 210).

438

WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

terddmmerung. Like the young Siegfried's encounter with Briinnhilde, Par- sifal's encounter with Kundry is deeply psychological in a manner anticipating Freud; Kundry's kiss is "the last mother's greeting" as well as the "first kiss of love." At the same time, Parsifal's recollection of and identification with Amfortas parallels Siegfried's identification with Briinnhilde imme- diately before his death. Both become oblivious of their surroundings and wholly absorbed in their vision as something more real than external reality.

Parsifal might be regarded as the last of a long line of Wagnerian characters-reaching back to Senta in The Flying Dutchman-who undergo a symbolic "transfiguration" in the course of the drama. But the transfig- uration of Parsifal from the naive youth of Act I into redeemer goes further in this respect than any of Wagner's earlier works. In Tristan, and in the Ring, Wagner allied the transfigurations of Isolde and Siegfried, respec- tively, with the dramatic theme of the promise of salvation through love, while giving striking emphasis to this aspect of the drama through his musical setting. The massive musical recapitulations of Tristan and G6t- terddmmerung serve precisely this end. Parsifal, by contrast, progresses beyond the dramatic framework of these earlier works; the Amfortas of Act I corresponds to the Tristan of Act III, and the transfiguration of the char- acter of Parsifal occurs in Act II, not as a final concluding gesture, as in Isolde's tranfiguration or Siegfried's vision of Briinnhilde before his death. The transfigurations of Siegfried and of Isolde represent an endpoint in the dramatic progression, or even a disappearance of the character from the level of the visible action, as implied in Isolde's symbolic death. The corre- sponding moment of the Parsifal drama, on the other hand, is not an end- point, but a new beginning: Parsifal's discovery of the nature of his mission as redeemer.

How, then, does Wagner embody in his music this shift of the principal dramatic interest from Amfortas to Parsifal? The device of recapitulation plays a crucial role. The last fifty bars of Parsifal's passage in response to Kundry's kiss are to a considerable extent a varied recapitulation of several passages from Amfortas's lament in Act I. In particular, the Communion theme is transferred to Parsifal, in C minor and A-flat minor, to reflect his identification with Amfortas and his memory of the Savior's cry which led him to the realm of the Grail. The use here of recapitulation is dramatically apt, since it expresses Parsifal's capacity for compassion as his means of insight into the plight of Amfortas, while transferring the musical material associated with the Grail to the future leader of the Order. Amfortas, it will be recalled, is incapable of serving his office after the scene witnessed by Parsifal in Act I.

In a sense, Kundry's delivery of the kiss is also a recapitulation, though its musical setting is heard for 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 Klingsor to inflict the wound. It is significant in 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

439

440 THE JOURNAL OF 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 serpent ready to strike. 5 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

^ r^ iW I I - I I I KuB. (Sie hat ihr Haupt vollig iber das scinige gencigt und heftet

nun ihre Lippen zu einen langen Kussc au seinen Mund) Sehr langsam h K

~~( 3'p ; v te ot ~o. topi . i .$ . -b- BJ. " f: rX g pi _ t vx_ IT' r -

Hr. gedampft Pos Pos. | I

)9: $o . I. = -d-. ~ ~ - -1 tAi ~ ~V ~ *- *

(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. Parsitfu zeighl tiaf den Speer.

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

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

,' 1 1? .

Hrt Po

'gj*d. *- . * *.

15It is interesting in this connection that an entry in Cosima's diary dated 3 June 1878 describes Kundry's motive as a "winding" or "serpentine motive of love's desire" (" 'ein Augenblick Damon- ischen Versenkens,' wie R. die Takte bezeichnet, welche den Kuss Kundry's begleiten, und worin das tragische, wie Gift sich schlangelnde Motiv der Liebessehnsucht vemichtend wirkt."). This passage is cited in Richard Wagner. Samtliche Werke, vol 30, ed. M. Geck and E. Voss, op. cit., p. 33.

I -

WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

The full symbolic significance of this musical setting of Kundry's kiss seems to have been overlooked in the literature on Parsifal, though the motivic relationships themselves have been carefully examined.16 This mo- tivic derivation of the descending semitone of the Communion theme from Kundry's chromatic music points to the prehistory of the drama-Kundry's earlier seduction of Amfortas-as the dramatic source of these same musical tensions from the beginning of the work. In this sense, the time-scale of the music extends beyond the beginning of the drama. Kundry's kiss serves then as the point of connection between the heavenly, diatonic realm of the Grail and the diabolical, chromatic realm of Klingsor; from her kiss comes the "pollution of the sanctuary," reflected in the chromatic contamination in the third bar of the Communion theme. Thus the crucial turning-point of the drama comes in this replay of the earlier seduction scene, with Parsifal taking the place of Amfortas.

After receiving Kundry's kiss, Parsifal reacts by identifying the wound of Amfortas with his own experience of the temptation of sin. The wound of Amfortas can then be seen as a symbol, as the outward, visible embod- iment of the inner, spiritual condition of sin. This relationship is expressed musically through the initial derivation of 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?", corresponds to the setting of Amfortas's words, "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 turn is derived from the chromatic inflection of the Communion theme and, ultimately, from Kundry's poisoned kiss.

The musical significance of this relationship extends even beyond these examples, moreover, in a complex network of passages spanning the entire work. The setting of Kundry's kiss had already been foreshadowed at the same pitch level, for instance, in the music of Gurnemanz's narrative in Act I, where he described the seduction of Amfortas by Kundry. It is surely not coincidental, furthermore, that the motivic fifth f-b-flat highlighted in the music of Kundry's kiss recurs so prominently in Act III, in music connected with the death and funeral procession of Titurel, which is asso- ciated tonally with B-flat minor. No less significant is the reappearance of the descending semitone g-flat-f at Kundry's baptism by Parsifal, where the crucial pitch g-flat is reinterpreted enharmonically as f-sharp, and sub- sequently resolved into B major in the music of the "Good Friday Spell." 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 important role.

'6A thorough discussion of the motivic relationships in Parsifal is contained in Hans-Joachim Bauer, Wagners Parsifal: Kriterien der Kompositionstechnik (Munich, 1977). For a recent discussion of harmonic relationships in this setting of Kundry's kiss, see David Lewin, "Amfortas's Prayer to Titurel and the role of D in Parsifal: The Tonal Spaces of the Drama and the Enharmonic Cb/B," 19th- Century Music VII (1984), 348-49.

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Parsifal's rejection of the temptation of sin, embodied in the kiss, is paralleled by his identification with the Grail, as embodied in the two appearances of the Communion theme in the keys of C minor and A-flat minor. The first appearance of the theme corresponds exactly, in key and orchestration, to Amfortas's description of the Communion service in Act I; according to Wagner's performance directions, as transmitted by Felix Mottl, Parsifal is at this point "totally in the state of being in which he has seen Amfortas."17 Moments later, Parsifal's trance-like vision culminates in his quotation of 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). According to Mottl, this line is to be sung with "terrifying expression."18 The unusual use here of the minor mode of A-flat contributes to the intensity of expression, as does the fact that the chromatic turn to the C-minor harmony of the theme is sung by Parsifal himself. Once again, the words here refer to the sin of Amfortas and not merely to its external manifestation in the wound. Only when this sin is overcome can the diatonic purity of the Communion theme be af- firmed.

Example 6.

B. Etwa.s vorrelend Gurnemanz (in hochstcs Entzicken aushrhcnd)

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

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

A o- F 1 L. tf

III There is one decisive moment remaining in the development of the music associated with the Grail: Parsifal's return with the Holy Spear and his assumption of the role of leader of the Order. Here, finally, the threat to the Grail is removed; also removed is the chromatic contamination of the Communion theme. The tonal pairing is eliminated in favor of a symphonic synthesis and resolution of the motives of the Grail in A-flat major.

The motivic change in the Communion theme in Act III has been pointed out by Lorenz and other analysts; the downward semitone 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 Amfortas gesehen hat." See the vocal score of Parsifal edited and annotated by Mottl (Frankfurt, London, New York: C.F. Peters, 1914, 1942), p. 187.

1'"mit furchtbarem Ausdruck!" (Ibid., p. 187). 19See Lorenz, Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner, vol. IV (rpt. Tutzing, 1966), p. 14.

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WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

theme appears when Parsifal presents the spear to Gumemanz, and subse- quently throughout the closing Grail Scene. The first appearance of this new version of the theme is shown in Example 7. Lorenz regarded this change as the product of a new motivic combination, in which the series of rising tones to the new resolution outlining a fourth comprises 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 rising fourth a-flat--d-flat).10 This interpretation, however persuasive, leaves out of account the broader structural and dramatic implications of the change, which consists not of an assimilation of the "Spear" motive per se, but of an alteration in one note, a purging of the crucial descending semitone that had represented a primary source of musical tension throughout the drama. Once again, an analogy might be drawn with Tristan, in which the change of a semitone in the harmony of the crucial "Tristan" chord provides the new sonority to be treated as tonic when the ascending chromatic progres- sion from the first act prelude is transformed and resolved in Isolde's trans- figuration.21 In both cases, Wagner presents a theme at the outset of the work containing elements of musical tension and complexity which are identified throughout with 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 consolidation of the primary musical complex occurs only at the end of the entire work, where it is dramatically motivated.

In this sense, Anthony Newcomb's claim in a recent article that "the essence of Wagnerian form lies in its ambiguity and incompleteness" is somewhat misleading.22 Ambiguity and incompleteness may indeed char- acterize the form of limited sections or dramatic scenes in the music dramas; in these works a dramatic scene 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 Application of 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

20See Lorenz, ibid., pp. 13-14. The head of the Communion theme with this new upward resolution has often been described in the literature as the "Redemption" motive.

21See Kinderman, "Das 'Geheimnis der Form' in Wagners Tristan und Isolde," op. cit., 184-86. 22"The Birth of Music Out of the Spirit of Drama," op. cit., 64. 23"Dennoch muss die neue Form der dramatischen Musik, um wiederum als Musik ein Kunstwerk

zu bilden, die Einheit des Symphoniesatzes aufweisen, und diess erreicht sie, wenn sie, im innigsten Zusammenhange mit demselben, iiber das ganze Drama sich erstreckt, nicht nur iiber einzelne kleinere, willkiirlich herausgehobene Theile desselben," Richard Wagner. Gesammelte Schriften. vol. 10 (Berlin, 1907), p. 185.

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THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

Example 7.

Hbl. Hr. A I.

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

b lsb i " P" '

&. *

A 8-

$cb. .

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

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

I = -------

This procedure is demonstrated in works such as Tristan and Parsifal, where a primary musical complex associated with central aspects of the drama undergoes a formal evolution prolonged over the entire duration of the work. Not all the music is organized in relationship to this primary musical complex; episodic portions of the drama, such as the Flower Maid- ens' Scene in Parsifal, for instance, are given an appropriately episodic treatment in the music. Passages comprising the primary musical complex can be heard in relationship to one another, even over vast stretches of musical time, because parallels in the dramatic situation are reflected by the recall or reinterpretation of the same thematic material, reinforced by control of the tonality and orchestration. A special burden carried by this musical complex is to convey in sound the resolution of dramatic tensions at the conclusion of the work. Here, it is precisely the resolution of am- biguities and strength of formal articulation in the music that plays an indispensable dramatic role.

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 original Communion theme with a new

444

WAGNER'S PARSIFAL

resolution, I shall refer to it as the Communion motive. 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 fourths are frequently inverted to rising fourths in the contrapuntal texture. In the closing music it becomes evident, for the first time, that all of the motives associated with the Grail are closely related thematically.

At the same time, these related motives are joined to create larger formal units. The Grail, Communion, and Faith motives are all combined in direct rhythmic succession, forming together an eight-bar thematic statement which is treated in sequence, leading to the imitative entries of the Communion theme in the chorus, to the text "Erlosung dem Erloser!" ("Redeemed the Redeemer!"). The formal and thematic integration of this passage sym- bolizes the spiritual wholeness of the redemption. Never before in the work had such integration been evident in the music associated with the Grail. In the first act prelude, by contrast, these motives were merely juxtaposed, without being directly connected to one another.

At the moment of Kundry's death, Wagner recalls for the last time the chromatic semitone relationship that had played such an important role throughout the drama. As Kundry sinks lifeless to earth, the music shifts upward melodically 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 rhythmically augmented form of a progression previously heard in associ- ation with the chromatic semitone in the third bar of the Communion theme. At its final appearance at the end of Parsifal, this chromatic shift is absorbed into a larger cadential progression in A-flat major. When this cadence is reached, the visual dramatic action is at an end, and the stage curtains are 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 Communion motives are overlapped and 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 appears in its rhythmically augmented form in the highest register. This rhythmically augmented form 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 moments of Act II, where Parsifal made the sign of the cross, banishing Klingsor's evil magic. But whereas the tonality of these earlier appearances of the augmented motive was C major, it is now heard in A-flat major, further resolving the tension of the tonal pairing.

The rest of the Grail motive is omitted in the final cadence, since its pitches are duplicated when the Communion motive, heard on the subdom- inant, rises stepwise from b-flat to e-flat, the dominant note of the tonic triad reached in the third-to-last bar. In its pitch level on d-flat and or- chestration of trombones and trumpets, this final appearance of the Com- munion motive corresponds exactly to its earlier appearance at the moment of entrance into the Temple of the Grail in Act I (cf. Example 4). There,

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THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

Figure 1.

(rhythnically augmented)

_e 19P

Continuation of Grail Motive omitted 1

r & A - Resolution I

CoiIui Motive Co mli tturtion Motive

Example 8.

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

+ ..

pi

cresc.. A*^iij ~ ~ I I 6r-L.

/,,~'~ 1_1 J~ ' |t'; IF; L r !'eL l t li l ~'I

P.

as we have seen, it resolved downward by semitone to c, as C major became primary in the tonal pairing. Here, by contrast, the Communion motive resolves upward to e-flat, in the final sonority of the work. The arrival of this final tonic chord of A-flat major thus provides the simultaneous res- olution of the Grail and Communion motives, standing in place of the dissonance that had represented a primary source of musical tension from the very beginning of the work, four hours earlier. In these closing bars, both motives are subsumed into the final subdominant cadence, completing and perfecting the musical form as an audible symbol for the utopia of redemption.

University of Victoria

Grail Motive

bi'b " I . . f - I r tI

446

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