An Introduction to the Music of
Parsifal
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Treatment of the Thematic
Material
 This music which is in perpetual
evolution is probably the most
highly personal musical invention of Wagner - it
places the emphasis for the first time on
uncertainty, on indetermination. It represents a
rejection of immutability, an aversion to
definiteness in musical phrases as long as they
have not exhausted their potential for evolution
and renewal. 
[Pierre Boulez on Parsifal]
 ince the thematic
material of Parsifal is the subject of a separate article it will not be
discussed at length here. A few important points are
worth noting, however. There are thematic elements in
the music of Parsifal that might be regarded as
Leitmotives, i.e. recurring musical ideas
that are encountered as presentiments of events in
the future, or as reminiscences of events in the
past. (It is possible for the occurrence of a motif
to be both at once: as when Gurnemanz tells the
recruits about the seduction of Amfortas, we hear the
teasing motif associated with the Kiss, that
will be heard again when it is Parsifal's turn to be
seduced. ). Many of the extended Leitmotives
to be found in the score turn out, on closer
examination, to be complexes built up from basic
motives, each consisting of only a few notes. In
fact, there are five kinds of thematic element in
this motivic web of evolution and renewal:
- complexes, such as
Kundry's Curse or Nature's
Healing
- main subjects, of which there
are few, including Faith, Holy
Grail and Prophecy
- basic motives, to which we can
apply such labels as Suffering,
Yearning, Nature and
Bells
- characteristic intervals, such
as the tritone associated with Kundry
- characteristic chords, such as
the added sixth chord associated with
Parsifal.
 number of
commentators on the work have observed that it is
entirely made out of a small number of
closely-related motives. They are related either by
common elements (e.g. complexes sharing basic motives
and characteristic intervals), or by their common
origin in one or more thematic elements heard earlier
in the work. Even the monody that opens the work,
which I have referred to elsewhere as the
Grundthema, is itself a complex which is, at
the higher level of structure, composed of three
short motives that will later develop their distinct
associations, and at the lower level made up of a
broken chord (that of Parsifal) followed by a number
of tiny melodic cells that will be combined and
developed later. Several of the extended themes (e.g.
Prophecy) are revealed fragment by fragment
until, at the appropriate moment, they are heard
complete and connected to the dramatic action. Where
there is contrast, it is mainly provided by the
development of chromatic variants of diatonic
originals, or by changes of rhythm.
Mediation
 ach of the four
principal characters has his or her own motif
(although Gurnemanz, as a neutral narrator, does not
seem to have one of his own). These Leitmotives,
together with those associated with objects, events
and abstractions, blend into one another according to
the relationships between the characters. This is
deliberate; in this music Wagner was concerned with
mediation. Whereas in earlier works he had used
strong contrasts, he was now concerned with shadings,
as of grey between the poles of black and white.
I recognise now that the
characteristic fabric of my music (always of course
in the closest association with the poetic design),
which my friends regard as so new and significant,
owes its construction above all to the extreme
sensitivity which guides me in the direction of
mediating and providing an intimate bond between
all the different moments of transition that
separate the extremes of mood. I should now like to
call my most delicate and profound art the art of
transition, for the whole fabric of my art is made
up of such transitions: all that is abrupt and
sudden is now repugnant to me; it is often
unavoidable and necessary, but even then it may not
occur unless the mood has been clearly prepared in
advance, so that the suddenness of the transition
appears to come as a matter of course.
 agner
referred to and exploited the operatic tradition by
making use of traditional operatic forms. It is
possible to identify accompanied recitative, arioso,
ensembles and even strophic passages in
Parsifal. The traditional forms, however,
are scarcely recognisable, since Wagner transcended
their limitations.
 he German
musicologist Alfred Lorenz analysed the forms of
Wagner's works in his Das Geheimnis der Form bei
Richard Wagner. In the later works, Lorenz
found many examples of bar form (stollen; stollen;
abgesang), as described by David in the first act of
Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg, often on a
large scale. According to Lorenz, the second act of
Parsifal is constructed of nineteen
musico-poetic periods, each of which has its own
tonality. In terms of bar form, on the architectural
scale, the first Stollen (periods 1 to 7) ends with
the disappearance of Klingsor; the second Stollen
(periods 8 to 12) ends at the reappearance of Kundry;
and the scene between Kundry and Parsifal forms the
Abgesang. Since it returns, in periods 18 and 19, to
the tonality of b minor
(associated with Klingsor, and therefore the tonality
of period 1), and since material from earlier in the
act returns in reminiscence during these two periods,
this act can also be seen as an example of arch form.
As can the entire opera, through the parallelism of
acts 1 and 3, a structural aspect that
Parsifal shares with Tristan und
Isolde.
Diatonic and Chromatic
In greatly simplified terms, the
use of musical motives in Parsifal
is governed and conditioned by the contrast of
chromaticism and diatonicism: the chromaticism that
conveys the deceptions of Klingsor's kingdom also
expresses the anguish of Amfortas, while the
expressive range of the diatonicism reaches from
the naive simplicity of Parsifal's motif to the
sublimity of the Grail themes. As categories of
musical technique, chromaticism and diatonicism
also have an allegorical significance: the very
fact that two motives are both chromatic - an
insignificant characteristic in itself, because it
is so general - creates a dramatic association
between them. The connection between deception and
suffering, between the magic garden and Amfortas'
lamentation, is as unmistakable as, in the diatonic
sphere, that between the naivety of the "pure fool"
and the Grail kingship that awaits Parsifal at the
end of his path to recognition. The fact that
Wagner based the differentiations and ramifications
of the dramatic argument, which have caused so much
torment to exegetes, on so simple, so obvious a
contrast, which holds good for the stage action as
well as for the music, is the proof of his
theatrical genius.
he domain of the
Grail, which is physically the location of the first
and last acts of the drama, is predominantly
diatonic; whereas that of the magician Klingsor,
which is the physical location of the second act, is
predominantly chromatic. Parsifal's motivic group is
at the diatonic extreme; Klingsor's motivic group is
at the opposite extreme of chromaticism. The music of
Amfortas and Kundry lies between these poles.
 n the domain of
Klingsor (or when Gurnemanz refers to it) we hear, in
minor keys, chromatic versions of Leitmotives that
were originally diatonic and predominantly in major
keys. Consider the use of the Redemption
theme (motif 1A) in Parsifal's outburst after the
Kiss. This kind of variation according to context is
not just restricted to the melodic and rhythmic
elements. This also applies to another important
element: the transformation music that accompanies
Parsifal's access to the Grail Castle in each of the
outer acts. At the climax of the second act prelude,
there is a distorted parody of the transformation
music that takes the listener into Klingsor's
distorted version of the Grail Castle. Like the
reflections in Klingsor's mirror, all that is found
in his castle is a distorted, sterile reflection of
the domain of the Grail.
lthough there are
some triadic passages in the score, there are also
passages in which diminished seventh chords are
prominent. One such chord is the Tristan
chord, which is heard for example in the second act,
at the moment of the Kiss, and other diminished
seventh chords are the basic element of Parsifal's
subsequent outburst, from Amfortas! Die
Wunde! to Hier, hier!. Later, it is a
diminished seventh chord (B flat, D flat, E and G)
that dominates the desolate music of the third act
prelude. Both harmonically and melodically, Wagner's
consistent use of minor thirds and tritones to some
extent replaces the traditional triadic harmonies
based on perfect intervals.
Fig. 1 Cadences
Tonality
everal commentators
have noted that there are relatively few unequivocal
cadences in the work. Note, shown above, the outburst
of diatonic harmonies, with three very definite
B major cadences, after
Gurnemanz hails the pure one as the new Grail King.
Obviously something extremely important is happening
at this moment. It is followed by the 26 bars during
which Kundry is baptised. Then, as Kundry weeps, the
music reaches the remote key of b
flat minor (the tonal center of the prelude to
this act), returning to B
major for Parsifal's motif in its final
development. In his essay in the Cambridge Opera Handbook on
Parsifal, Arnold Whittall has observed:
It is clear that Wagner's
essential musico-dramatic technique is not merely a
matter of preparing and then evading cadences, but
an almost ironic reversal of traditional cadential
function. The fewer the points of diatonic
cadential resolution, the greater their structural
significance might appear to be. But if some of
these resolutions are outside of the prevailing
tonality ... they resolve nothing; they rather
enhance the prevailing instability, and create an
even stronger contrast with the truly structural
cadences which do confirm
prevailing tonal tendencies.
 ot only does Wagner
sometimes seem to be evading cadences, but also
avoiding the appearance of the implied tonic, e.g. by
establishing the dominant of an unheard tonic. As for
example in the first scene with Kundry, where the
shifting chromatic harmonies at times suggest an
underlying b minor, although
the tonic chord is never heard. The emphasis on keys
a tritone apart is one factor that has frustrated
attempts to analyse this music with the techniques
appropriate to sonatas and symphonies, including
Schenkerian analysis. Listen, for example, to the
change from D flat to
A major at the end of
Gurnemanz's narration in the first act (durch hell erschauter Wortezeichen Male ) and
the equally powerful shift from D
major to A flat major
on the word Gral in Parsifal's final phrase
(Enthullet den Gral, öffnet den
Schrein! ) at the end of the work.
Orchestration
n the orchestration
of Parsifal, Wagner returned to the
quadruple woodwind he had used in the Ring, but
omitted the so-called Wagner tubas, bass trumpet and
contrabass trombone. In his scoring of the work,
Wagner seems to have returned to the blocked
instrumentation of his earlier operas, rather than
the integrated scoring of Tristan and
Die Meistersinger, where melodic lines pass
seamlessly from one instrument to another and
textures are built with instruments from different
divisions of the orchestra. Parsifal
actually begins with this kind of orchestration, but
when the motives of Holy Grail (motif 2) and
Faith (motif 3) appear, they are played by
different instrumental groups in turn. The block-like
scoring is less evident in the more contrapuntal
passages, such as the music of the Flower Maidens. As
in Tristan, the horns are mostly grouped
with the woodwind, rather than with the other brass
instruments.
Tempo
s Pierre Boulez has
remarked, the tempi of Parsifal are unstable
in dramatic passages and stable in reflective
passages. There seems to be an increasing tendency
for conductors to emphasis the contrasts in tempi,
for example taking the opening of the work (marked
sehr langsam) very, very slowly, and the
prelude to the second act (marked heftig, doch
nicht übereilt) very, very fast.
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