  Wagner, with his theatrical sense, was right: this music is not so impressive when it is performed, no matter how well, outside of the Bayreuth theater consecrated to the music dramas. We heard Parsifal the year it was produced at Bayreuth. No performance of the prelude has since awakened the same emotions. There was the The prelude to Parsifal was composed at Bayreuth in September, 1877. The first performance was a private one in the hall of the Villa Wahnfried at Bayreuth, on December 25, 1878, to celebrate the birthday of Cosima Wagner. The prelude was performed as a morning serenade by the Meiningen Court Orchestra, led by Wagner. The performance was repeated the evening of the same day, when guests were invited. The score and orchestral parts were published in October, 1882. Parsifal, “a stage-consecration-festival play” in three acts, book and music by Richard Wagner, was first performed at Bayreuth for the patrons, July 26, 1882. The first public performance was on July 30, 1882. Hermann Levi conducted. Wagner’s version of the story of Percival, or, as he prefers, Parsifal, is familiar to all. There is no need in a description of the prelude to this music drama of telling the simple tale or pondering its symbolism. The ethical idea of the drama is that enlightenment coming through conscious pity brings salvation. The clearest and the sanest exposition of the prelude is that included by Maurice Kufferath in his elaborate essay, Parsifal (Paris: Fischbacher, 1890). We give portions of this exposition in a greatly condensed form: Without preparation the prelude opens with a broad melodic phrase, which is sung later in the great religious scene of the first act, during the mystic feast, the Lord’s Supper. The phrase is sung, at first without accompaniment, in unison by violins, violoncello, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, sehr langsam (lento assai), A flat major, 4-4. This motive is repeated by trumpet, oboes, and half the first and second violins in unison against rising and falling arpeggios in the violas and remaining violins, repeated chords for flutes, clarinets, and English horn, and sustained harmonies in bassoons and horns. This theme is known as the motive of the “Last Supper.” The second phrase of the motive is given out and repeated as before. Without any other transition than a series of broken chords, the trombones and the trumpets give out the second theme, the “Grail” motive, because it serves throughout the music drama to characterize the worship of the holy relic. It is a very short theme, which afterwards will enter constantly, sometimes alone, sometimes in company with other themes, often modified in rhythm, but preserving always its characteristic harmonies. As William J. Henderson says: “The second theme of the prelude is that of the Grail itself, which is here presented to us in a different musical aspect from that of the Lohengrin score. There the Grail was celebrated as a potency by which the world was aided, while here it is brought before us as the visible embodiment of a faith, the memento of a crucified Saviour.” Then, and again without transition, but with a change of tempo to 6-4, comes the third motive, that of “Belief.” The brass first proclaims it. The strings take up the “Grail” theme. The “Belief” motive reappears four times in succession, in different tonalities. A roll of drums on A flat is accompanied by a tremolo of double basses, giving the contra F. The first motive, the “Lord’s Supper,” enters first (wood-wind, afterwards in the violoncellos). This time the motive is not completed. Wagner stops at the third measure and takes a new subject, which is repeated several times with increasing expression of sorrow. There is, then, a fourth theme derived from the “Lord’s Supper” motive. The first two measures, which are found in simpler form and without the appoggiatura in the “Supper” theme, will serve hereafter to characterize more particularly the “Holy Lance” that At the moment when this fourth theme, which suggests the sufferings of Christ and Amfortas, bursts forth from the whole orchestra, the Prelude has its climax. This prelude, like unto that of Lohengrin, is developed by successive degrees until it reaches a maximum of expression, and there is a diminuendo to pianissimo. Thus the synthesis of the whole drama has been clearly exposed. That which remains is only a peroration, a logical, necessary conclusion, brought about by the ideas expressed by the different themes. It is by the sight of suffering that Parsifal learns pity and saves Amfortas. It is the motive of the “Lord’s Supper” that signifies both devotion and sacrifice; that is to say Love, and Love is the conclusion. The last chords of the expiring lament lead back gently to the first two measures of the “Lord’s Supper” motive, which, repeated from octave to octave on a pedal (E flat), end in a series of ascending chords, a prayer, or a supplication. Is there hope? The drama gives the answer to this question full of anguish. The prelude is scored for three flutes, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, kettledrums, and strings. |
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