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An Introduction to the Music of Parsifal
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 Leitmotive, i.e. recurring musical ideas that are encountered as presentiments of events in the future, or as
reminiscences of events in the past1. (It is possible for the occurrence of a musical motive to be both at once: as when Gurnemanz
tells the recruits about the seduction of Amfortas, we hear the teasing motive associated with the Kiss, that will be heard again when it is Parsifal's
turn to be seduced). Many of the extended Leitmotive to be found in the score turn out, on closer examination, to be complexes built up from basic
motives (which Lorenz called Urmotive), 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
our of the principal characters each has his or her own motive, although
Gurnemanz, as a neutral narrator, does not seem to have one of his own. These Leitmotive, 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 (or believed he had found) many examples
of bar form (Stollen; Stollen; Abgesang), as it is described by David in the first act of Die 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 motive 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 Leitmotive that were originally diatonic and predominantly in major keys. Consider the use of the Redemption theme (motive 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.
Diminished-seventh Music
lthough there are some triadic passages in the score, there are also passages in
which diminished-seventh chords are prominent. A diminished-seventh chord is just a stack of notes separated by minor thirds. The so-called Tristan chord, which is heard for example in the second act of Parsifal at the moment of the kiss, can be regarded as a modified
diminished-seventh chord; and diminished-seventh chords are the basic element of Parsifal's subsequent outburst, after the kiss, 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 motive 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
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 (motive 2) and Faith (motive 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
Pierre Boulez has remarked, the tempi of Parsifal are unstable in
dramatic passages and stable in reflective passages. Since about the middle of the 20th century, there has been an increasing tendency for conductors to emphasis
the contrasts in tempi, for example taking the opening of the work (marked sehr langsam) very slowly, and the prelude to the second act (marked
heftig, doch nicht übereilt) very fast.
Footnote 1: Wagner did not invent the word Leitmotiv (leading motive) and did not much like it. He preferred to speak of
Hauptthema or Grundthema. By definition, a leading motive returns and when it does so, the listener and spectator is reminded (consciously or
subconsciously) of the context in which it occurred before. Note that a leading motive does not always have one fixed meaning: if it occurs multiple times, in
different contexts, the motive acquires a trace of meaning.
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© Derrick Everett 1996-2018. This page last updated (table width controlled by ID's) --- Wed 18 Apr 2018 19:20:00 ---
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