The Mass in D can be said to be the parent of some of the Parsifal
music. Wagner had the discernment to seize on the intellectual
subtleties he found there, and to put them to happiest uses. If we
compare the instrumental effects just noted with the exquisitely
delicate music that opens the Parsifal Prelude after the introductory
_leit motif_, we find a solution to each, as well as an affinity, in the
religious mysticism in which each is enveloped. There is a central
theme, but so shadowy and unreal as to be hardly apparent. Like a nimbus
these shimmerings of sound from the violins surround and permeate it, so
that one is not aware of any particular melody, but rather it is
perceived that the atmosphere is full of a divine melody, as if by
spiritual insight the listener had attained to a state of mind akin to
that of the seer, and had, for the time being, become one with the
composer. The effect is produced of being in the presence of something
holy.
The _Naturlangsamkeit_ necessary to the birth of any great art-work
sometimes extends to its recognition and appreciation by the public.
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