Genre poetics of R. Wagner’s “Parsifal” in the context of Gesamtkunstwerk idea

Abstract

Background. Over the course of the last decades, musicology was marked by a revival of interest in the phenomenon of artistic synthesis. This paper considers it in view of “general unity” as one of techniques of understanding the 19th century culture. Such a mindset can be defined by various terms, including Gesamtkunstwerk. The scholars today do not narrow this term down to a mere synthesis of arts, but add immersion into cultural history to it. This allows us to view Gesamtkunstwerk as a way of cultural memory existence, and genre poetics of R. Wagner’s musical drama as a bearer of this memory. In this context, special place belongs to “Parsifal”, which in this article is presented as an absolute embodiment of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk. The aim of the article is to reveal compositional devices, through which references of “Parsifal” poetics and other genres of different arts create “general unity” under the sign of “Gesamtkunstwerk”. A genre method, a systematic method based on interdisciplinary approach, and a comparative one are chosen as methods of research. Research materials used in the paper relate to different branches of Humanitarian knowledge, including theatre arts (S. Mokulsky), literature (M. Bakhtin), medievistics (A. Gurevich), musicology (M. Veremiova, N. Vieru, E. Makhrova, K. Richter, A. Philippov etc.). It is noted that the definition of “Bühnenweihfestspiel” indicated in the score speaks of the relatedness of this work to the genre of medieval mystery. We have detected some common features of “Parsifal” like slow-paced events, their rather low concentration in time and meticulous development of verbally-acoustic matter. In the musical drama under consideration both a word and a system of leitmotifs function as an instrument for the above-mentioned scrupulosity; thus, poetics of a mystery is transformed into poetics of musical drama. The references of “Parsifal” to medieval epics are noted. Its plot contains only essential for the main storyline events. Cumulative method is chosen as the basic one which defines the algorithm of compositional movement, making it somewhat discrete. At the same time, the continuous flow of leitmotif development contributes to endless disclosure of the sense and its symbolization. Duality of time contributes to appearance of spatiality in genre poetics of “Parsifal”, which also corresponds to the epic poetics. There are some references between genre poetics of “Parsifal” and such types of novel as “Erziehungsroman” and “adventure novel”. The features of “Erziehungsroman”, based on a choice of constantly evolving protagonist as a plot-creating device are embodied to the fullest extent in a presentation of the main hero of “Parsifal”. In the work he passes the way from a naïve youth to the saviour of The Holy Grail, doing the deed of all-embracing love, thus the portrayal of his image is done according to the principle of development. At the same time, there have been revealed differences between the last work of the composer and “Lohengrin”. Unlike Elsa, with her gradual transformation, Parsifal undergoes this process almost instantly. But R. Wagner, using leitmotiv system, reveals subconscious psychological development, thus using it as a nonverbal explanation of one of the essential plot events in the work. The links between “adventure novel” and “Parsifal” lie in the type of intrigue, localization of space-time, due to which it is differentiated into adventurous, legendary, psychological etc. The hero, shifting into another spacetime dimension, transforms his image. This paper shows it on example of Kundry. This heroine in her cyclic “death – resurrection” transformations completely belongs to poetics of the myth, although the composer here does not use it as an example, as he fills musical characteristics of Kundry with all the traits of opera character. The article explores references of “Parsifal” to Passions by J. S. Bach. It is pointed out that in this case R. Wagner does not follow their specific traits, as he chooses the most essential features of poetics of this genre. A сonclusion is made that genre poetics of “Parsifal”, reflecting the features of poetics of another genres, incorporates their essential traits, which are then intertwined into general texture of musical drama, creating inseparable fusion, according to the Gesamtkunstwerk idea.