Review (PDF) Parsifal In Full Score (Dover Music Scores)
"He [Wagner] has been much criticized for this strongly personal statement of a religious subject, which mingles the concepts of sacred and profane love; but in the light of modern knowledge, his insight into the relationship between religious and sexual experience can only seem much in advance of his time." — Encylopaedia BritannicaCompleted in 1882, Parsifal is Wagner's last opera and one of his finest, renowned for its splendid music and glowing orchestration. With its deeply personal treatment of the legend of the Holy Grail, and the subtle intensity and depth of compassion of its treatment of themes of innocence and purity, remorse and sexual renunciation, the opera ranks as one of Wagner's most symbolic, intense, and compassionate works.This Dover edition reproduces every note of this glorious masterpiece from the authoritative C. F. Peters edition, including the list of characters and contents in both German and English. It will be welcomed by musicians, music lovers, opera buffs, and admirers of Wagner as the only complete, inexpensive edition of a 19th-century landmark.
Series: Dover Music Scores
Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Dover Publications (September 1, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0486251756
ISBN-13: 978-0486251752
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 1.2 x 10.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #139,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Wagner #15 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Forms & Genres > Ballet & Dance #22 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Historical Period > Late Romantic
Wagner's Parsifal, his "last" opera, is also in many ways his most moving on an intellectual and spiritual level. Full of Schopenhauerian resignation which rises beyond the pessimism of The World as Will and Idea into the world of Buddhist renunciation, Parsifal uses Christian metaphor to show the futility of striving and the peace to be gained from release.However, this review will obviously be of the Dover edition of the full score, not the opera itself. Also, I won't comment on the previous negative review, except to add that the reviewer should do Wagner and the world a favor and read Macgee's The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy, and give the slanderous and bizarre Wagner-Hitler link a well-deserved rest. Wagner was an anti-semite, but to somehow link this to Hitler is a classic example of the genetic fallacy (where did this idea ever come from, anyway? The Nazis loved Beethoven far more than Wagner's left-wing revolutionary aural madness,it never really fit with their style....)The Dover editions of Wagner's full scores are the most useful editions available for actually listening to and studying Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerken, and are a bargain at twice the price. Professional musicians will of course recognize that the G. Schirmer editions are the ones most often used for actual performances and rehearsals, particularly the Schirmer piano reductions (either the good old green hardbacks or the orange paperbacks). But even professionals make good use of the Dover editions, since they are ideal for sitting down with a good set of headphones and a cup of coffee to take in the brilliance that was Wagner.
The same comments of my review for Dover's reprint of Peter's full-score of Wagner's second opera of his "Ring" cycle" hold for the equivalent reprint of that publisher's edition of "Parsifal" (though NOT for "Tristan und Isolde", alas...):Unlike Schott's editions (which Dover uses for its reprints of the other 3 operas of the cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" {"The Nibelung's Ring"}, the Peters version reprinted here DOES have the voice and instrumental staves mostly arranged in proper order, making things a great deal easier to follow. [Alas, there's one exception - having the voices and stage-directions (though not stage instruments - that part at least is already in proper order) between the violas and the 'celli (harking back to Baroque "basso-continuo" usage) - at least they're consistent with it which helps...] Also the fonts used by the Peters engraving are a fair bit clearer than those of Schott in their first editions (their current edition of the complete works of Richard Wagner is SUPERLATIVE but no doubt fantastically expensive!!!).This score is not only a steal at the price, it's an excellent score, period (though I could visualise it using fewer pages if the engravings were done differently whereby the systems would have been somewhat smaller but done for a larger paper-size). No qualms about my recommendation - GET IT!!!!
Even if you're not a musician, it's pretty easy to follow the music on the full score while listening to a cd (of course you have to be able to read a score!); you then can understand much of Wagner's technique and effects (the violin arpeggios e.g.), recognize the leit-motivs and their variants.The price of this 800 page book is a bargain, and it's really enjoyable to go deep inside the music.
Parsifal in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) The Rite of Spring in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Requiem, K626, in Full Score (Dover Miniature Music Scores) Madama Butterfly in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Les Noces in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Great Romantic Violin Concertos in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Norma in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) La Sonnambula in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Requiem Mass and Te Deum in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Roman Carnival and Other Overtures in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Requiem in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Carmen in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) L'Arlésienne Suites Nos. 1 & 2 Full Score (Dover Music Scores) "Polovtsian Dances" and "In the Steppes of Central Asia" in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Three Orchestral Works in Full Score: Academic Festival Overture, Tragic Overture and Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn (Dover Music Scores) Serenades Nos. 1 and 2 in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8 in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Complete Concerti Grossi in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) Le Tombeau de Couperin and Valses Nobles et Sentimentales in Full Score (Dover Music Scores)
