E 326K // Literature of the Middle Ages in Translation: Mysteries of the Grail

Parzival's Swan Song and Parsifal's Opening

One of the most musically moving moments in the opera, Parsifal, is the Swan Song from 46:30-51:35. The scene immediately conjured up images of Loherangin’s Swan on page 346 and swans’ apparent connection to the Grail and Grail knights. This scene really captured my interest because the music changed from an entirely holy church hymnal feel that had this spiritual fullness to it to a completely frenzied, terrifying hysteria, seen also in the acting of the noble man and the holy men around him who jump up and begin looking around. The ferocity and near mania with which the noble man demands to know what is going added to the intensity of the scene at this point. The music then crescendos from terrifying to threatening when the priest realizes that a swan has been shot down and demands, again, that the soul responsible be brought forward. This is the audience’s first look at the titular Parsifal, literally dragged with a decrescendo of music. There are a few tense moments of absolute silence before the music begins again. However, now the music is slower, when the priest speaks, and much faster as the holy men accuse Parsifal of shooting down the bird. Rather than be intimidated by the threatening and accusatory speed, Parsifal answers in like, boasting of his ability to hit anything that flies. Seeing that Parsifal does not understand that he has committed some act of offense (to the priest or the forest or God is unclear) he begins to ask Parsifal a series of guilt producing questions of the forest’s holiness and the animal’s tameness and the swan’s innocence. The priest’s voice and tone remain clear and slow, juxtaposed to the holy men’s loud, quick suggests that “the offender” be “punished”. The priest continues to explain the bird’s magnificence when he suddenly switches, with the music, to the accusatory threatening tone that previously only the holy men had been using. He calls Parsifal childish and angrily pulls him over to the swan. When Parsifal pulls away, the music slows down again but the priest’s voice remains incredibly threatening as he tells Parsifal that swan was “pleasing” to them and asks “what is he now” to Parsifal. In a wonderfully subtle switch, the slow, threatening score becomes a slow, remorseful score. The priest makes Parsifal look at the swan’s blood from Parsifal’s arrow, points out the “drooping and lifeless” wings, and notes the “snowy plumage stained dark”. The priest only has to point out the “glazed eyes” before Parsifal suddenly breaks his bow over his knee and casts it aside. The score crescendos once more as the priest interrogates Parsifal about his “misdeed and “great guilt” and incredulously asks how Parsifal could “commit this crime”. Parsifal replies that he “didn’t know”.

The invocation of such strong language and a variety of condescension in teaching and threatening interrogation, Wagner clearly wants to get across a strong point about the sacredness of the swan. Since Wagner has obviously worked closely with Parzival as a text, he’d be familiar with the line at the very end of the book that discusses Loherangin’s “friend the swan”. The swan brings the boat that Loherangin sails away on when Loherangin’s wife asks his name, breaking a vow they’d made. Assumedly, the swan goes with him. Knowing that Loherangin is Parzival’s son in book and musical adds a layer of metaphor and arc to the story. Parsifal shoots down the swan in the opera, causing a great sin in the eyes of the priest. As the priest is ‘connected’ the audience can assume he knows the connotations behind the swan’s appearance. While it is plausible that he simply sees this unnecessary act of violence and reduction of beauty as a sin itself, the text provided seems to be an overreaction. However, if the swan is connected to the Grail is connected to God, the priest’s reaction is entirely justified and the diction applicable. Compared to Loherangin, Parsifal’s/Parzival’s son, and his use of a swan as his “friend”, more importantly, the thing that facilitates his leaving, the swan becomes something Loherangin cherishes and, possibly, trusts. I found this familial, if not character, arc across mediums to be really engaging and interesting to the growth of Parsifal from the “holy fool”--someone who "didn't know" what the significance of the swan was--to someone with knowledge of God and holiness, with connections and answers, if only of the small variety and if only through his son.

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