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 Devotion (ogg format) |
Newman called this motif Devotion. It appears three times in the second act: first when Kundry tells Parsifal that she has waited for him, to give him tidings; then when she begs him to have pity for her; and finally at her last despairing appeal to him. In act III, there is a suggestion of the motif as Kundry catches sight of the approaching stranger; and it appears again as Kundry brings water to Parsifal.
The Devotion motif is a derivative of the Bells motif (#28), of which the red notes can be regarded as a variation, while the last three notes can be regarded as a variation of the first three notes of the same motif.
Both Hans von Wolzogen and Albert Lavignac referred to this
motif as "Resignation". Lavignac suggested that the falling
fourths of motif #28, together with themes in Die
Meistersinger and Siegfried that also feature
falling fourths, could be related to the "answer" motif in
Beethoven's F major quartet, opus 135: Es muss
sein
. This relationship appears most clearly in the red notes
of the example above.