Part 2
“To the enraptured look of the highest celestial longing for love, the clearest blue atmosphere of heaven at first seems to condense itself into a wonderful, scarcely perceptible but magically pleasing vision; with gradually increasing precision the wonder-working angelic host is delineated in infinitely delicate lines as, conveying the holy vessel (the Grail) in its midst, it insensibly descends from the blazing heights of heaven. As the vision grows more and more distinct, as it hovers over the surface of the earth, a narcotic fragrant odor issues from its midst; entrancing vapors well up from it like golden clouds, and overpower the sense of the astonished gazer, who, from the lowest depths of his palpitating heart, feels himself wonderfully urged to holy emotions.
“Now throbs the heart with the pain of ecstasy, now with the heavenly joy which agitates the breast of the beholder; with irresistible might all the repressed germs of love rise up in it, stimulated to a wondrous growth by the vivifying magic of the vision; however much it can expand, it will break at last with vehement longing, impelled to self-sacrifice and toward an ultimate dissolving reveals again in the supremest bliss as, imparting comfort the nearer it approaches, the divine vision reveals itself to our entranced senses, and when at last the holy vessel shows itself in the marvel of undraped reality, and clearly revealed to him to whom it is vouchsafed to behold it, as the Holy Grail, which from out of its divine contents spreads broadcast the sunbeams of highest love, like the lights of a heavenly fire that stirs all hearts with the heat of the flame of its everlasting glow, the beholder’s brain reels—he falls down in a state of adoring annihilation. Yet upon him who is thus lost in love’s rapture the Grail pours down its blessing, with which it designates him as its chosen knight; the blazing flame subsides into an ever-decreasing brightness, which now, like a gasp of breath of the most unspeakable joy and emotion, spreads itself over the surface of the earth and fills the breast of him who adores with a blessedness of which he had no foreboding. With chaste rejoicing, and smilingly looking down, the angelic host mounts again to heaven’s heights; the source of love, which had dried up the earth, has been brought by them to the world again—the Grail they have left in the custody of the pure-minded men, in whose hands its contents overflow as a source of blessing—and the angelic host vanishes in the glorious light of heaven’s blue sky, as, before, it thence came down.”
“Der Ring des Nibelungen”
A colossal work in four parts, the _Ring’s_ central theme is one of redemption. The Norse God Wotan, addicted to the amassing of power, may not achieve it through deceit or treachery. By trickery he obtains from the Nibelung Alberich a ring possessing untold powers, made of the gold of the Rhine. Alberich hisses a curse, in losing it, which only a pure hero acting as a free agent may remove.
Wotan’s attempts to get the ring, his often devious reasoning, and the panoplied purpose of the whole, make of the tetralogy an epic study in the emotions, the humanities, the loyalties, the shortcomings, in short, in the whole moral and spiritual concept of the individual and society.
The Ride of the Valkyries from “Die Walküre”
In the time intervening between _Das Rheingold_ and _Die Walküre_ Wotan has worked out a plan to save the gods from destruction. The ring must not fall into the wrong hands, those of Alberich, for instance, for the wily and greedy creature knows full well its powers. The thing to do, then, is to regain possession of it without “craft or violence.” He must employ some means above such devices. Consequently his plan is to bring into being a hero who shall not be his servitor, but rather the agency for the accomplishment through a free, totally unguided will. Thus we come to the saga of the Walsungs, human descendants of Wotan, and one of them, Siegmund, is the hero chosen.
The Valkyries are the nine daughters of Wotan by the earth goddess of wisdom, Erda. And of these Brünnhilde is Wotan’s favorite. She interferes with her father’s wishes in order to aid Siegmund, however, and she is given the penalty of mortality by her father. The duet in the last act of the opera between Wotan and Brünnhilde is one of the most moving sequences in all Wagner.
The Ride of the Valkyries is an excerpt from the music which leads into Act III, made into a concert piece by Wagner himself. A great rock dominates the scene in the opera. It is the Valkyr Rock where now the maidens are gathering. Fully equipped in shining mail, carrying spears and shields, they ride swiftly through the storm. At the curtain’s rise only four of the maidens are discernible on the stage. The others may be heard announcing their entrance with the exultant Valkyr call. The music surges to great heights of sound, wild, untrammeled, passionate, driven relentlessly by powerful rhythms.
A Siegfried Idyl
In a letter dated June 25, 1870, Wagner wrote of his wife Cosima, “She has defied every disapprobation and taken upon herself every condemnation. She has borne to me a wonderfully beautiful boy, whom I call boldly Siegfried; he is now growing, together with my work [he was working then on the opera _Siegfried_; hence the name]; he gives me a new long life, which at last has attained a meaning. Thus we get along without the world, from which we have wholly withdrawn.”
The composer wrote the music of the _Idyl_—originally called the _Triebschen Idyl_—as a birthday gift for his wife. On Christmas morning, 1870, Wagner and a group of musicians assembled on the stairs of his home at Triebschen and performed the lovely music, which, cramped though the musicians were because of tight quarters, obtained a fine rendering, according to ear-witnesses.
When the _Idyl_ was first played in Berlin, in 1878, a music critic gave it as gospel that the music was taken from the second act of the opera _Siegfried_. The truth of the matter is that the _Idyl_, while based on several themes from the opera besides that of a folk song, is a complete entity in itself, for the themes were developed in a manner entirely different from their treatment in the opera. In addition to which, it must be remembered that the folk song, _Schlaf’, mein Kind, schlaf’ein_, does not appear in the opera at all.
Forest Murmurs from “Siegfried”
The music for this sequence is taken from the scene before the dragon’s cave in the second act of _Siegfried_. In arranging it for concert use, Wagner gave it the name _Waldweben_ (_Forest Weavings_ or _Forest Murmurs_). The young hero Siegfried is left to his own thoughts by the dwarf Mime. The rustling of the leaves is first heard in D minor, then in B major. Siegfried is daydreaming. He ponders on the question of his origin. He knows that he is not of Mime’s blood, and the clarinet, paralleling, and explaining the idea, intones the theme of the Volsungs.
As his thoughts turn to his mother the Love-Life motive emerges through the ’cellos and violas and double basses, next in all the strings, and finally horns and bassoons take it over. A solo violin plays a subject associated with Freia, goddess of youth and love. The rustling of the leaves is again heard and the theme of the Forest Bird comes in by way of the oboe, flute, clarinet and other wood winds. The music ends in a Vivace which incorporates the Fire, the Siegfried, and the Slumber motives, besides the twittering of the Forest Bird.
Excerpts from “Götterdämmerung”—Siegfried’s Rhine Journey
This music comes between the Prologue and the first act. It is frequently referred to as a “scherzo.” Siegfried has taken leave of his wife Brünnhilde and, exhorted by her, sallies forth on new adventures. The music brings up the hero’s past achievements, whose themes are presented in new guises. They are cleverly interwoven, the pattern being rich in colors and effects as well as in sonorities. Through the orchestral web may be detected threads akin to such thematic ideas as Siegfried’s horn call, the Rhine motive, the motive of Renunciation, the motive of the Rhine Daughters, the motive of the Rheingold and, last, that of the Nibelungs’ Servitude. Climactic and exultant, the music yet gives forth many implications of impending tragedy.
Funeral Music
Through the trickery of Hagen, villainous half-brother of Gunther, Siegfried is slain. His body is lifted tenderly by Gunther’s followers and carried back to the hall of the Gibichungs. As that happens on the stage, the orchestra sings out with a giant dirge, lamenting the fall of the Volsungs while reviewing previous moments in the history of the tragic race. There is the reference to the love of Siegmund and Sieglinde from _Die Walküre_. Toward its conclusion the horns and bass trumpet announce sonorously the motive of Siegfried the hero. There is a rhythmic variant of the horn call and with the dying away of the music Brünnhilde is momentarily mentioned.
Brünnhilde’s Immolation
The end of the gigantic _Ring_, specifically Brünnhilde’s scene of immolation, is frequently performed in concert with a soprano soloist. The heroine’s great monologue, delivered in the hall of the Gibichungs, writes finis to a drama that takes four separate operas to tell. In her grief over the death of her hero-husband she stills the “loud, unworthy” lamentations of the others who are gathered about the slain Siegfried. She commands them to erect a funeral pyre and to place the hero’s body upon it. His ring is taken from his finger and she puts it on her own. After applying a torch to the pyre she leaps on her horse Grane and rushes into the flames.
Prelude and ‘Love-Death’ from “Tristan und Isolde”
In 1854, when Wagner was in the midst of composing the _Ring_, the idea for an opera on the Tristan theme came to him. Not till three years later, however, did he begin actual work on it, and the music-drama was finished in August 1859. Complications of various kinds interfered with the production of the opera, but it finally obtained its première at the Royal Court Theater in Munich, on June 10, 1865, under the direction of Hans von Bülow.
Wagner’s version of the tale combines features from numerous legends. Very likely of Celtic origin, the story, as the German composer utilized it, makes room for myriad delvings into psychology and metaphysics, some of which are not easy to follow. We must assume, as Ernest Newman suggests, that the characters and their motivations were perfectly clear to the composer, if they seem not to be altogether to the listener. Here is the essence of the music-drama’s plot, extracted from Wagner’s own description:
We are told of Tristan and Isolde in an ancient love poem, which is “constantly fashioning itself anew, and has been adopted by every European language of the Middle Ages.” Tristan, a faithful vassal of King Marke, woos Isolde for his king, yet not daring to reveal to her his own love. “Isolde, powerless to do otherwise, follows him as a bride to his lord.” In the meantime the Goddess of Love, balked by all this, plans revenge. The Love Potion, which had been intended for the king in order to insure the marriage, is given to Tristan and Isolde to drink, a circumstance which “... opens their eyes to the truth and leads to the avowal that for the future they belong only to each other.... The world, power, fame, splendor, honor, knighthood, fidelity, friendship, all are dissipated like an empty dream. One thing only remains: longing, longing, insatiable longing, forever springing up anew, pining and thirsting. Death, which means passing away, perishing, never awakening, their only deliverance.... Shall we call it death? Or is it the hidden wonder-world from out of which an ivy and vine, entwined with each other, grew upon Tristan’s and Isolde’s grave, as the legend tells us?”
The Prelude, A minor, 6-8, makes a very gradual and long _crescendo_ to a mighty _fortissimo_, followed by a briefer _decrescendo_, which leads to a whispered _pianissimo_. Free as to form and ever widening in scope of development, it offers two chief themes: a phrase, uttered by the ’cellos, is united to another, given to the oboes, to form a subject called the “Love Potion” theme, or the theme of “Longing.” Another theme, again announced by the ’cellos, “Tristan’s Love Glance,” is sensuous, even voluptuous in character.
After the Prelude, the orchestra enters into the “Liebestod” or “Love-Death,” that passionate flow of phrases, taken mostly from the material in the second act Love-Duet. Isolde (in the opera) sings her song of sublimated desire. Franz Liszt is responsible for the application of the term “Liebestod” to that part of the music which originally had been named “Verklärung” by Wagner himself.
Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”
“The completion of _Die Meistersinger_, Triebschen, Thursday, October 24, 1867, 8 o’clock in the evening, R. W.” These words were inscribed on the last sheet of the manuscript of Wagner’s only operatic comedy. This was some twenty-two years after the very first drafts were drawn at Marienbad. The doctor had ordered a complete rest. But rest to Wagner meant ennui. Perhaps, he thought, he might be able to rest while composing a lighter work. The idea took hold. He gave it considerable thought. He could just about see this airy piece’s “rapid circulation through the European opera houses.” Indeed, he judged that “something thoroughly light and popular” might be just the thing to make his everlasting fame.
Hans Sachs, of course, is the hero of this masterpiece. A historic character, Sachs was built by the composer into something of an ideal of homespun charm and wit and philosophy. But Wagner also evened a score with an old enemy in his composition of this work. The music critic Eduard Hanslick appears as the crotchety, pedantic and unprincipled Beckmesser, thus earning for himself a ridiculous immortality.
How Wagner could have written this opera with all the troubles besetting him is hard to comprehend. Yet no financial snarls, domestic tribulations, romantic attachments or what-not could stay it even though it took years to come forth.
As for the Prelude, Wagner himself has written an interesting analysis, which is here appended:
“The opening theme for the ’cellos has already been heard in the third strophe of Sachs’ cobbler-song in Act II. There is expressed the bitter cry of the man who has determined to renounce his personal happiness, yet who shows the world a cheerful, resolute exterior. That smothered cry was understood by Eva, and so deeply did it pierce her heart that she fain would fly away, if only to hear this cheerful-seeming song no longer. Now, in the Introduction to Act III, this motive is played alone by the ’cellos, and developed in the other strings till it dies away in resignation; but forthwith, and as from out the distance, the horns intone the solemn song wherewith Hans Sachs greeted Luther and the Reformation, which had won the poet such incomparable popularity. After the first strophe the strings again take single phrases of the cobbler’s song, very softly and much slower, as though the man were turning his gaze from his handiwork heavenwards, and lost in tender musings. Then, with increased sonority, the horns pursue the master’s hymn, with which Hans Sachs, at the end of the act, is greeted by the populace of Nuremberg. Next reappears the strings’ first motive, with grandiose expression of the anguish of a deeply-stirred soul; calmed and allayed, it attains the utmost serenity of a blest and peaceful resignation.”
The plot of _Die Meistersinger_ deals with a song contest which is to be held in Nuremberg on St. John’s Day. Naturally, there is to be a handsome prize for the winner and in this case it is the hand of Eva, daughter of the goldsmith Veit Pogner. A young knight, Walther von Stolzing, has seen Eva meanwhile, and he has fallen in love with her. Because he is a likeable young man, he is given permission to enter the contest. Another contestant is Beckmesser, the town clerk, who attempts to bring Walther to ruin.
However, Walther and Eva have confessed their love for each other to Hans Sachs, a cobbler, who happens also to be in love with Eva. But he makes the supreme sacrifice, rejoicing at the same time in the knowledge that the maid will be deliriously happy with her young knight. He helps their cause along, writing down the notes of a song Walther has heard in a dream. At the contest Beckmesser tries to sing that same song, offering it as his own, but his raucous efforts make him the laughing stock of the affair. Of course, Walther’s song is adjudged the best and he wins his Eva.
Excerpts from “Die Meistersinger”
Often heard in the concert hall are several other excerpts from _Die Meistersinger_. These include the Procession of the Guilds, the Dance of the Apprentices, the Procession of the Masters, the Homage to Sachs, and the Finale.
Prelude, Transformation Scene and Grail Scene from Act 1 of “Parsifal”
Most of the _Ring_, all of _Tristan_, and a considerable portion of _Die Meistersinger_ had been written by Wagner before he started actual work on the “consecrational festival stage play,” _Parsifal_, in 1865. He made a first outline of the libretto in August of that year, some two decades after he had become acquainted with the Parsifal poem of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Minnesinger. Not till 1877, however, did the text attain its final shape, and it was published in December. Sometime previously Wagner had turned to the task of composing the music and completed it in 1879. The orchestration was finished in January 1882. The opera was given for the first time at Bayreuth on July 26, 1882. The Prelude, written in December 1878, had been given its première performance at Wagner’s house, Wahnfried, on Christmas Day, with the composer conducting for the occasion, his wife Cosima’s birthday.
The ethical essence of _Parsifal_ has thus been expressed: “Enlightenment coming through conscious pity brings salvation.” Wagner, whose earlier music-dramas each revolved about some _idée fixe_ of philosophical or moral implication, brought to _Parsifal_, besides, religious elements derived from the twin sources of Christian doctrine and Buddhism. Some years before he had done the sketch for a play on the subject of Jesus of Nazareth, and, parenthetically, it is quite likely that he had no intention to write music for it. Nevertheless, here is shown the composer’s religious urge, mingled with other aspects of his creative bent. He says, “I was burning to write something that should take the message of my tortured brain, and speak in a fashion to be understood by present life. Just as with my Siegfried, the force of my desire had borne me to the fount of the Eternal Human: so now, when I found this desire cut off by modern life from all appeasement, and saw afresh that the sole redemption lay in flight from out this life, casting off its claims on me by self-destruction, did I come to the fount of every modern rendering of such a situation—Jesus of Nazareth, the Man.”
During that period Wagner drafted another play, which he titled _Die Seger_ (_The Victors_), one of Buddhistic import, whose story centers on the dictum that Prakriti, the hero, may not become one with Amanda, the heroine, unless he “shares the latter’s vow of chastity.” In these two works may be found qualities and tones of thought also incorporated in _Parsifal_.
The locale of _Parsifal_ is Montsalvat in the Spanish Pyrenees. The castle of the Holy Grail is tenanted by a company of Knights, guardians of the Spear which pierced Jesus’ side as He hung on the Cross, and of the Cup He drank from the Last Supper and which received His precious blood from the Spear-wound. This brotherhood of Knights of the Grail refuses membership to all, save the pure in heart, and the Knights go about the world doing good through the high powers given them by the Grail.
A certain other knight, Klingsor, sinful and scheming, enraged against the Knights for having been denied admission to the Brotherhood, has built a magic garden, whose many charms have proved strong enough to tempt several of the weaker-willed Knights. Amfortas, king of the Grail, is one of these. He has fallen victim to the wiles of Kundry, a creature of Klingsor. The latter has seized the Spear from Amfortas and has humiliated him further by wounding him with it. The wound may be cured only by being touched with the point of the Spear held by a Guileless Fool, a youth who can withstand all temptation. This youth, of course, is Parsifal, a forest lad who enters into the picture through having killed a swan sacred to the Grail. Parsifal is made to go through the rituals prescribed by the libretto; namely, he is present at the ceremony of the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper without grasping anything of its meaning; he resists the lures thriving in Klingsor’s garden; then he seizes the Spear, flung at him by Klingsor and, as he makes the sign of the cross, the garden is destroyed. He wanders about the world and returns to Montsalvat. Kundry, now a repentant woman dedicated to the Grail’s service, washes his feet and dries them with her hair. Next he goes with Gurnemanz to the temple where he restores Amfortas to health, and, as the latter bends before him in homage, Kundry dies. Having thus attained “enlightenment ... through conscious pity,” Parsifal has become the saviour of Montsalvat.
The Prelude is an abbreviated exposition of the purposes, musical and dramatic, of the opera. It opens with the phrase which dominates the religious scene of the first act during the feast of the Lord’s Supper. The phrase, sung first in unison by violins, ’cellos, English horn, clarinet and bassoons, is marked _sehr langsam_ (Lento assai), A-flat major, 4-4. It is taken up by trumpet, oboes, and half the first and second violins to the accompaniment of arpeggios in the violas and the other violins, and chords for flutes, clarinets, and English horn with the bassoons and horns sustaining harmony notes. After a series of broken chords, the trombones and trumpets announce a second theme, the Grail motive, which is a phrase long known as the _Dresden Amen_ of the Saxon liturgy. There is a change of tempo to 6-4 with the entrance of a third theme, that of Faith. Its first figure is frequently repeated against changing harmonies. A fourth theme appears, suggestive of the suffering of Christ and Amfortas, which originates in the Lord’s Supper motive; its first two measures are also employed to characterize the Spear. In the words of Maurice Kufferath, “Like the Prelude to ‘Lohengrin,’ the introduction to ‘Parsifal’ is developed by successive degrees until it reaches a maximum of expression, thereafter to diminish imperceptibly to a pianissimo. Thus the synthesis of the whole drama is clearly exposed. That which remains is merely a peroration, a logical, necessary conclusion brought about by the ideas associated with the different themes.”
The music of the Transformation Scene in this act is that which is played during the walk of the venerable Gurnemanz and Parsifal through the wood to the Hall of the Grail. The music is of a march-like quality for a spell, subsequently gradually expanding in color and richness to the climactic theme representative of the Penitence of Amfortas, which is given out three times in succession.