Abstract
This dissertation examines sections of Richard Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, using both Neo-Riemannian theory and Schenkerian analysis. The Neo-Riemannian discussion is primarily concerned with the creation of an inclusive model capable of analyzing any parsimonious connection between two common practice sonorities. The construction of this model is achieved in four phases. First, Riemann’s Tonnetz is expanded to include transformations involving both augmented and diminished triads. Second, Douthett and Steinbach’s Power Towers graph is expanded to include all seventh chords, and new functional designations are applied to these transformations. Third, connections between sonorities that involve a change in cardinality are examined and compared to triadic transformations. Finally, the results of all three of these analytical discussions are combined to produce an inclusive analytical model. Four short passages from Parsifal are analyzed using the inclusive model. The next section explores Heinrich Schenker’s ideas on chromaticism and posits that Wagner’s music still lies within Schenker’s definition of tonality; therefore his analytical system should be able to illuminate large sections of Wagner’s music. Attempts by previous scholars to apply Schenkerian reductive techniques to large sections of Wagner’s music are reviewed. Literature that suggests the existence of dissonant prolongation and multivalence (based in part on Schenker’s own graphs) is reviewed. Five tonally-closed sections of Parsifal – the Act I Prelude, the Act II Prelude, the “Kiss” scene from Act II, the “Baptisms” scene from Act III, and the “Amfortas’ Prayer” scene from the end of the opera – are analyzed using the expanded Schenkerian analytical techniques including prolongation of dissonant sonorities and multivalence. The graphs reveal that the Schenkerian method is capable of elucidating the deep foreground (tonal) musical structure in spite of the dense foreground chromaticism that is constant throughout Wagner’s final musical drama.
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