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Suffering (ogg format) |
Lorenz remarked that many of the smaller elements of Wagner's
music, although they had not been singled out as "leading
motives" (Leitmotiven) by von Wolzogen or others, were deserving
of attention because of their structural importance. The
Suffering motif was, in fact, noticed
by von Wolzogen, who labelled it as the sounds of woe.
It would be easy to avoid labelling something as simple as a
descending three (or sometimes four or even five) notes of
chromatic scale as a motif, were it not so ubiquitous. Robin
Holloway, writing in the ENO/ROH Guide to the work, considers the
harmonic complex (A) associated with this motif so important that
he describes it as the work's central, sonorous image
. As
well as the three-note Suffering
motif, this complex also includes an important element of the
Agony complex (#14x).
It may even be a conscious reference to part of the
central, sonorous image
of Tristan und Isolde,
since the three-note motif is a beheaded version of the first
basic motif of that work, a motif that also becomes
associated with suffering. In his analysis of Tristan und
Isolde, Roger North has observed that these three notes,
differently harmonised, appear in a scene that Wagner laid aside
in order to work on Tristan: in Mime's Starling Song, which is also about suffering.
 Four-note form (or is it five?) as it appears in the second act |
|
 Three-note form as it appears in the second act |
The basic motif of Suffering usually appears as three notes, sometimes extended to four, and sometimes followed by a rising minor third. It is closely related to the Agony motif (#14) and in the four-note form to its inversion, the Yearning motif (#35), which may also be regarded as a basic motif. Typical occurrences of the Suffering motif from act 2 are shown in (B) and (C) above.
Other analyses of the themes that appear in Parsifal have applied the label "suffering" elsewhere. There are several themes related to pain and suffering; to which of them we apply this label is unimportant. In applying it to this motif the author is following Carl Dahlhaus.