Teacher's Guide Cambridge Pre-U MUSIC Available for teaching ...

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Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
Shortly after he had read Wolfram’s Parzifal, Wagner had contemplated writing a drama based on
the life and death of Christ and focusing in particular on Mary Magdalene. A prose sketch for this
drama, entitled Jesus von Nazareth, dates from early in 1849. A few years later, under the influence
of Schopenhauer, he became fascinated by Buddhism and the pursuit of Nirvana (a concept that was
closely related to Schopenhauer’s ideas of renunciation of the world). A sketch for a drama based on
episodes from the life of Buddha, entitled Die Sieger (The Victors) dates from 1856. Elements from
both of these sketches ultimately found their place in Parsifal: the character of Kundry draws on that
of Mary Magdalene in Jesus von Nazareth, while Parsifal is depicted as a Christ-like redeemer after
having undergone a process of enlightenment that might be seen as mirroring the progress of the
Buddha towards Nirvana. The attempt to bring together such diverse religious ideas in a drama that
draws extensively on Christian symbolism was one of the most controversial aspects of Parsifal at the
time, and has remained so ever since.
The two opposing forces in Parsifal are represented on the one hand by the brotherhood of Knights of
the Grail, who aspire to purity and faithfulness as the guardians of two precious relics of the Passion
of Christ: the Holy Grail – traditionally the cup used at the Last Supper, although Wagner does not
state this in so many words – and the spear that inflicted the wound in Christ’s side at the Crucifixion),
and on the other by the sorcerer Klingsor. He had been deemed unworthy to be a member of the
brotherhood and in an effort to control his carnal desires had castrated himself; even this was not
sufficient for him to be admitted, so he had sworn to destroy the Knights and gain control of their
relics for his own purposes. He surrounded himself with a magic garden filled with flowers that
could be transformed into beautiful and seductive women, who could tempt the Knights into his
power. Shortly before the action begins, Amfortas (the leader of the brotherhood) had ventured
into Klingsor’s domain to try to destroy him by using the holy spear, but had himself been seduced.
Klingsor had thus gained control of the spear and had used it to inflict on Amfortas a wound that will
not heal. In a vision, Amfortas had been told of the only way he could gain healing and redemption,
through a ‘pure fool’, made wise by sharing in his suffering.
The theme of the ‘pure fool’ forms a link between the characters of Parsifal and Siegfried, though
it is more developed in Parsifal than in the Ring. At their first appearance, both are callow youths,
entirely ignorant of their parentage and given to the pursuit of selfish pleasure without any thought of
possible consequences. Parsifal is shown as having no sense of empathy with Amfortas, to such an
extent that any initial hopes that he might be the fulfilment of the vision are abandoned. But Parsifal
strays into Klingsor’s garden, where he is seduced by Kundry, who tells him about his mother’s love
for him. When Kundry kisses him, Parsifal suddenly understands that he is experiencing exactly what
happened to Amfortas. With this unexpected insight he rejects Kundry’s advances; she summons the
help of Klingsor, who hurls the spear at Parsifal to wound him. Parsifal seizes the spear and makes
the sign of the cross with it, thereby destroying Klingsor and all his power. After years of searching,
Parsifal finds his way back to the realm of the Grail, where he fulfils his destiny: he heals Amfortas’s
wound, brings redemption to Kundry and blesses the brotherhood of Knights as a white dove hovers
over his head.
In the context of this brief account of the story it is perhaps easier to understand some of the musical
symbolism that Wagner built into the score. In general terms, the most telling contrast is between
clear and emphatic diatonicism in some passages, and extreme chromaticism in others. Although
it often seems as if ‘good’ is represented by diatonic music and ‘evil’ with chromatic, the reality
is more equivocal than this suggests. Chromaticism is used not only to depict the wickedness of
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