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Friday, April 22, 2011
Easter
approaches...
Parsifal, Act III,
Good Friday Music
ANOTHER YEAR HAS PASSED. Say what you want about Wagner, the man could write some portentous music. The source of the translation below has plenty more to say about the composer, pro and con, but I suggest you just listen and take the cues of your own hearts.
In Wagner's poem it is on Good Friday
that Parsifal arrives at the edge of the forest with the Spear and with
a burden of guilt. Here Wagner seems to be following his sources, in
which Perceval or Parzival, who had not been inside a church or made
confession in several years, met some pilgrims who were shocked to see
him wearing armour on the holiest of days, Good Friday. They directed
him to an old hermit whom they had just visited. In Wagner's drama the
old hermit is identified with the knight Gurnemanz. Parsifal's guilt is
only increased when Gurnemanz tells him of the death of Titurel and of
the decay of the Grail community.
Soon after, however, Gurnemanz blesses the new Grail king and cries out to heaven:
Und ich, ich bin's
der all dies Elend schuf!
Ha! Welcher Sünden,
welches Frevels Schuld
muss dieses Toren Haupt
seit Ewigkeit belasten.
And I, it is I,
who brought this woe on all!
Ha! What transgression,
such a load of sin
must this my foolish head
bear from all eternity.
der all dies Elend schuf!
Ha! Welcher Sünden,
welches Frevels Schuld
muss dieses Toren Haupt
seit Ewigkeit belasten.
And I, it is I,
who brought this woe on all!
Ha! What transgression,
such a load of sin
must this my foolish head
bear from all eternity.
Soon after, however, Gurnemanz blesses the new Grail king and cries out to heaven:
Du - Reiner!
Mitleidsvoll Duldender,
heiltatvoll Wissender!
Wie des Erlös'ten Leiden
du gelitten,
die letzte Last entnimm nun
seinem Haupt!
O - Pure One!
Pitying sufferer,
all-wise deliverer!
As the redeeming torments
you once suffered,
now lift the last load
from his head!
Mitleidsvoll Duldender,
heiltatvoll Wissender!
Wie des Erlös'ten Leiden
du gelitten,
die letzte Last entnimm nun
seinem Haupt!
O - Pure One!
Pitying sufferer,
all-wise deliverer!
As the redeeming torments
you once suffered,
now lift the last load
from his head!
Have a joyful Easter, one and all.
P.S. I know Wagner isn't everyone's cup of tea; he isn't mine, either. But I try. You know. Don't always make it. For those of you don't make it either, a reminder that a German-speaking composer can still write celestial music appropriate for this most dire of days in the Christian calendar and its glorious aftermath.
Good Friday:
Easter:
Mozart. Eternal Light. What I wish for you.
Now I feel better.
