Editing Parsifal (section)

==Composition==
[[File:Disegno per copertina di libretto, disegno di Peter Hoffer per Parsifal (s.d.) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON012446.jpg|thumb|Drawing for a libretto cover page by [[Peter Hoffer]] (undated)]]

Wagner read von Eschenbach's poem ''Parzival'' while taking the waters at [[Mariánské Lázně|Marienbad]] in 1845.{{sfnp|Gregor-Dellin|1983|p=141}} After encountering [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]'s writings in 1854,<ref>[[s:On the Will in Nature|On the Will in Nature]], "Sinology," Footnote listing books on Buddhism [[s:On the Will in Nature#SINOLOGY]]</ref> Wagner became interested in Indian philosophies, especially [[Buddhism]]. Out of this interest came ''[[Die Sieger]]'' (''The Victors'', 1856), a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of [[The Buddha|Buddha]].{{sfnp|Millington|1992|p=147}} The themes of self-renunciation, rebirth, compassion, and even exclusive social groups ([[caste]]s in {{lang|de|Die Sieger}}, the knights of the Grail in Parsifal) which were later explored in ''Parsifal'' were first introduced in {{lang|de|Die Sieger}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.monsalvat.no/sieger.htm |title=Prose Sketch for ''Die Sieger''|author=Everett, Derrick |access-date=February 18, 2010 }}</ref>

According to his autobiography {{lang|de|Mein Leben}}, Wagner conceived ''Parsifal'' on [[Good Friday]] morning, April 1857, in the {{lang|de|Asyl}} (German: "Asylum"), the small cottage on Otto Wesendonck's estate in the [[Zürich]] suburb of Enge, which Wesendonck – a wealthy silk merchant and generous patron of the arts – had placed at Wagner's disposal, through the good offices of his wife [[Mathilde Wesendonck]].{{sfnp|Gregor-Dellin|1983|p=270}} The composer and his wife [[Minna Planer|Minna]] had moved into the cottage on 28 April:<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5144 |title=Mein Leben vol II |author=Wagner, Richard |publisher=Project Gutenberg |access-date=February 18, 2010}}</ref>

{{blockquote|... on [[Good Friday]] I awoke to find the sun shining brightly for the first time in this house: the little garden was radiant with green, the birds sang, and at last I could sit on the roof and enjoy the long-yearned-for peace with its message of promise. Full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolfram's ''Parzival''. Since the sojourn in Marienbad [in the summer of 1845], where I had conceived {{lang|de|Die Meistersinger}} and ''Lohengrin'', I had never occupied myself again with that poem; now its noble possibilities struck me with overwhelming force, and out of my thoughts about Good Friday I rapidly conceived a whole drama, of which I made a rough sketch with a few dashes of the pen, dividing the whole into three acts.}}

However, as his second wife [[Cosima Wagner]] later reported on 22 April 1879, this account had been colored by a certain amount of poetic licence:<ref>Wagner, Cosima (1980) ''Cosima Wagner's Diaries'' tr. [[Geoffrey Skelton|Skelton, Geoffrey]]. Collins. {{ISBN|0-00-216189-3}}</ref>
{{blockquote|R[ichard] today recalled the impression which inspired his "Good Friday Music"; he laughs, saying he had thought to himself, "In fact it is all as far-fetched as my love affairs, for it was not a Good Friday at all – just a pleasant mood in Nature which made me think, 'This is how a Good Friday ought to be{{'"}}.}}

The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendonck's cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in [[Zürich]].{{sfnp|Millington|1992|pp=135–136}} If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in {{lang|de|Mein Leben}} was accurately dated (and most of Wagner's surviving papers are dated), it could settle the issue once and for all, but unfortunately it has not survived.

Wagner did not resume work on ''Parsifal'' for eight years, during which time he completed ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' and began ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]''. Then, between 27 and 30 August 1865, he took up ''Parsifal'' again and made a prose draft of the work; this contains a fairly brief outline of the plot and a considerable amount of detailed commentary on the characters and themes of the drama.{{sfnp|Beckett|1981|p=13}} But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven and a half years. During this time most of Wagner's creative energy was devoted to the [[Der Ring des Nibelungen|''Ring'' cycle]], which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at [[Bayreuth]] in August 1876. Only when this gargantuan task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on ''Parsifal''. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, and by 19 April of the same year he had transformed this into a verse [[libretto]] (or "poem", as Wagner liked to call his [[libretto|libretti]]).{{sfnp|Beckett|1981|p=22}}

In September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these (known in German as the {{lang|de|Gesamtentwurf}} and in English as either the ''preliminary draft'' or the ''first complete draft'') was made in pencil on three [[staff (music)|staves]], one for the voices and two for the instruments. The second complete draft ({{lang|de|Orchesterskizze}}, ''orchestral draft'', ''[[short score]]'' or ''particell'') was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was much more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration.{{sfnp|Millington|1992|pp=147 f}}

The second draft was begun on 25 September 1877, just a few days after the first; at this point in his career Wagner liked to work on both drafts simultaneously, switching back and forth between the two so as not to allow too much time to elapse between his initial setting of the text and the final elaboration of the music. The {{lang|de|Gesamtentwurf}} of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879 and the {{lang|de|Orchesterskizze}} on the 26th of the same month.<ref name=Gregor-Dellin_477ff.>{{harvp|Gregor-Dellin|1983|pp=477 f.}}</ref>

The full score ({{lang|de|Partiturerstschrift}}) was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a fair copy of the entire opera, with all the voices and instruments properly notated according to standard practice. Wagner composed ''Parsifal'' one act at a time, completing the {{lang|de|Gesamtentwurf}} and {{lang|de|Orchesterskizze}} of each act before beginning the ''Gesamtentwurf'' of the next act; but because the {{lang|de|Orchesterskizze}} already embodied all the compositional details of the full score, the actual drafting of the {{lang|de|Partiturerstschrift}} was regarded by Wagner as little more than a routine task which could be done whenever he found the time. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878. The rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882.{{sfnp|Millington|1992|p=307}}

[[File:Parsifal-affisch.jpg|thumb|Poster for the premiere production of ''Parsifal'', 1882]]