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Question (ogg
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Although Wagner said that he had dispensed with the
Question
that features in his sources, there is a
Question that appears several times in
Parsifal. This three note fragment is heard first in the
orchestra, when Parsifal reveals that he does not know the
meaning of good and evil. Wagner wrote to King Ludwig that this knowledge was the
meaning of the kiss.
The Question motif is a thematic element that can be found within several other motives: Nature's Healing (#9), Klingsor's Magic (#10), Agony (#14), and Curse (#29).
In his Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner,
volume IV, Alfred Lorenz identified another figure as das Urmotiv der Frage
, the basic motive of the Question:
g, f#, a. So if anyone needs a Question motif, there are at least
two candidates.