In a world increasingly satisfied by the truly ordinary, Wagner's music stands as a reminder, for those of us who can still think, that we were intended for greater things...
Wagner's music is unique among others. He was the only one to combine such a clear manifestation of emotions with the mood of mystery and magic. I consider him an outstanding model and favorite composer.
When you arrive to Wagner, you know that you reached the pinnacle of Classical Music! At 82-year's young, I hit the bull's-eye! His work has a deep spiritual dimension, blessed are those that can be one with his!
Wagner was an absolute genius who, overwhelmingly inspired by the Germanic mythology and sublime legend spirit, gave us the precious gift of their audible embodiment!
Germanic mythology - only in the Ring (and if you look at them exactly, these four operas are actually not about gods, giants, dragons etc. but about humans). Parsifal, like Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, bases on Christian themes. There is also a lot of philosophy and psychology in Wagner's works. Limiting him to the Germanic topics means missing a lot.
My favorite opera by Wagner. This prelude in particular perfectly encapsulates the feeling of striving on a quest, being led by the light of truth even in the darkest of hours.. Fucking amazing.
@@donaldallen1771 Lol crude, vulgar, and tasteless because I used a curse word? No need to be a self righteous prick about it bud, I am here to appreciate Wagner’s greatness, just like you and everyone else here, you pompous airhead. It’s people like you that create a barrier between opera and classical music. You must either be an old timer, or a miserable jerk-off that everyone just hates to have at parties. Which one is it?
@@donaldallen1771 I may be crude and vulgar, but far from tasteless, I am here to enjoy Wagner’s genius just like everyone else here.. No need to be pompous about it. I didn’t think people in 2024 could be so moved by Wagner, but still have such a weird hang up about a written word used to emphasize Wagner’s genius. I had a much more abrasive response written out to you, but it seems like youtube removed it since I had some choice words for people like you.
I saw this performed at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth in 1977. In 2020, this takes me back 43 years and I still remember it like it was this afternoon. An experience I will never forget.
@@Yosigoasi - I really was very fortunate to see and hear this. I was in my last year of high school. The FSH is like being inside the sound board of a piano. Pretty amazing!
Wagner's Parsifal definitely stands as "Verwandlungsmusik" (transformational music) but the most eloquent description was by Virginia Wolff who stated that "With Wagner's Parsifal, we have been taken to a place not previously visited by sound." Amen!
“We wander with Parsifal in our heads through empty streets at night, where the gardens of the Hermitage glow with flowers like those other magic blossoms, and sound melts into color, and color calls out for words, where, in short, we are lifted out of the ordinary world and allowed merely to breathe and see-it is here that we realize how thin are the walls between one emotion and another; and how fused our impressions are with elements which we may not attempt.” - Virginia Woolf
There’s a chord at the climax at the end of the piece that I’ve come to call “the God chord”, because the ethereal otherworldly beauty of it seems somehow beyond humankind. Extraordinary. (exactly at 13:58 but start 10 seconds or so before that to earn it).
Wagner's music was the synthesis of arts. He contributed to the development of opera and it was not only music, also poetry, visual arts, ballet etc. His concept was to join all of them together. Truly a brilliant composer
When I first heard this, I was overwhelmed. What kind of unearthly harmonies did Wagner uncover, I thought. To my surprise while playing through the score, they were very ordinary. Only Wagner could take something as simple as an Ab triad and turn it into something so divine. His orchestration and the juxtaposition of melody against the background harmonies is so original. I haven't understood Wagner yet, despite seeing The Ring, and Tristan. But hopefully next year when I see Parsifal, I will finally get what the big deal is. Thank you for sharing!
Not really invented by Wagner though. Everything in this opera is influenced by Mendelssohn´s fifth symphony "reformation", chronologically actually his 3rd symphony. Both is based on the same protestant hymn, but the progression of Mendelssohn is actually reflected by Wagner.
What is so amazing about the capability of Wagner's compositions are the complexity of the ever continuously moving harmonies. The 1st time I was aware of this was when I was in high school and we played the overture to Die Meistersinger. After our conductor played recordings of the work, I became aware that there were continuously moving melodies and countermelodies. in fact up to 4 of such, and there were never any discord's. All of that was created in the mind of Wagner with no computers in the 1800s.
Parsifal is on his way to the temple of the Grail Knights and says: “I hardly move, yet far I seem to have come”, and the all-knowing Gurnemanz replies: “You see, my son, time turns here into space
"Opera" as plural "works" implies a perfect synthesis of performance and orchestra on a stage reserved for the creative impulse. I suppose the Nazis perverted the mystical in Wagner to promote the sensual as material instead. The grail is at the center of a considerable vortex of languages in Literature.
"Opera," plural too of "Opus"....Anyone...Nazis or even Methodists are free to understand music, Arthurian literature, the Fisher King...in their own way. Greetings from San Agustinillo!
Die Musik kommt direkt aus der Seele eines Suchenden, Verzweiflung , Hoffnung , Erlösung in einem, ein immer wiederkehrendes Flehen, es ist das Opium für eine menschliche Seele
Wagner is truly a magnificent composer but very complicated to understand. When I listen to his songs, returning from school, it feels like a relief on my back when I listen to one of his works. I hope there will still be people who listen to this wonderful kind of music and not like in this generation, and in all this, I am only 13 years old.
You remind me of myself at that age ( I'm now 53 ). My step-father had an enormous record collection, largely Germanic composers and I inherited a state of the art hi-fi system from his uncle and would throw on Wagner overtures, Beethoven's piano concertos ( no 3 and 4 always blew me away ), and I really began to understand both the evolution of the orchestra during the 19th century and the developments in composition ( listen to later Mozart symphonies then Beethoven then Brahms, and you'll see where Wagner was coming from, and you end up with Mahler and Bruckner at volume 11 and the house is shaking! ). I was reading Lord of The Rings at the time, and that was the backing soundtrack. Great stuff. You've got a lifetime of joy ahead of you.
Let's all humbly thank Ludwig II of Bavaria for saving Wagner, and building his magnificent castles. The king had an ear for music and an eye for magnificent architecture.
@Clinton Pendleton the communist revolution happened because of poverty, deprivation, war torn economy and state bankruptcy. Ludwig was at least responsible for the latter, and arguable for some of the other economic factors. To which can be added a sense of disconnection between the elite and the population.
"Parsifal" è un' opera sublime. Così come "Lohengrin". In queste opere Wagner raggiunge le vette del meraviglioso e del prodigioso. La geniale e stupefacente musica penetra nell' anima e suscita ammirazione e pace. Pace che deriva dalla coscienza del meraviglioso.
If you enjoy this: Vaughan-Williams' 3rd Symphony ("Pastoral") is in my top 10 as one of the more melancholy, haunting, and surreal pieces of music that I've had the pleasure of hearing. I'd highly recommend it. The first time I heard it, I was driving across Canada. In N. Ontario, with Lake Superior to my right, it came on the radio and I fell in love with it.
There are those who would like to erase beauty from the world, and there are those who are still moved by listening to the notes of Parsifal. Wagner will live.
@@Flat_Earth_Addy It's funny that you say this unironically. This very music likely played over loudspeakers in WW2 concentration camps, as they systemically led people to gas chambers as part of an ethnic cleansing. But yeah, maybe soon it will be called racist.
If anyone has the chance to watch the whole opera live, run!!! It's to this day one of my most memorable evenings at the MET with Ben Heppner, Wautraud Meier, Thomas Hampson, Rene Pape, Nicolai Putlilin. The set and staging felt like we were in a dream. Absolutely Stunning!!! It's the same version available in video with Meier and Sigfried Jerusalem.
Wagner is often played in the Leipzig Opera by the Gewandhausorchester. One if the best orchestras in the world. People younger than 29 can get a card for 10€
I saw a Parsifal at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan conducted by Riccardo Muti and PlacidoDomingo in the part of Parsifal. It was a wonderful and all-encompassing experience. Parsifal is one of those rare expressions of genius and human sensitivity to which the word "sublime" can be accompanied as due.
Wagner himself, for all intents and purposes, created the prototype to cinema with the darkened auditorium and invisible choir pit of the Festspielhaus. No wonder his music lives in on our moving images.
The opening two and a half minutes of this magnificent opus have an almost ethereal effect on me. It transports me, it fills me with nostalgia, fantasy, and longing. It never fails to move me.
The patience is one of the things that moves me most.. no need for haste, just to calmly be enveloped in the colors, the sound and the emotion. Totally different, but not really, is how I am similarly moved by Maurice Andre's recording of the Telemann in D, Air. No-one (but perhaps Johnny Cowell..) ever performed it as he did, with total relaxation, patience, and sensitivity.
Translation (non computer) of my comment below: One thing which makes Wagner's music so special is the development out a delicate quietness growing into melodious, wave-like crescendos, and ultimate dissipation in the sands of a timeless world where nothing but the most beautiful music can be found. Walter Schoenefeld: lover of all things beautiful. Let me know if you feel the same.
concordo com você Walter.Nem todos tem essa sensibilidade para engrandecer essas músicas desse gigante que foi Wagner.Amo as músicas dos outros compositores,Beethoven Mozart Bach Brams e outros. Ele é especial.
Composing new pieces is to hear the note in your head before it has ever been played on the instrument(s) you have imagined. What a talent to be born with.
Mediolanum Hibernicus The Semitic line comes from Shem. It does not come from Ashkenaz. #Fail St. Simon of Trent Bolshevism Communism The talmud The Kabbalah Kicked out of every European country at one time or another and, many countries, multiple times throughout history. Maybe do some research...
@@odb1612 I'm pretty sure he did, and what's with you people calling everything a dog whistle? Its not anti semetic to point out the reality of history and of certain people's
he sounded like he was there. as if he really witnessed the story of Parsifal by his own senses and then somehow traveled as a composer in our reality and transmitted us the emotions as a present of the story via his brilliant music. What an artist. Maybe one of the greatest ever.
lol he was antisemite xD and stop saying that didnt matter, it did. He wrote about it even in letters. Whole mitology of Ring's cycle is built up on it
@@anariondanumenor9675 : Almost all Germans were antisemite, mainly since Martin Luther who was a badly fanatic Jewish hater! Wagner belongs to the German Resurgence epoch which was fanatically Christian Lutheran. Also Fichte, Hegel and others German philosophers were that way. We can't judge on artists without their context!
I have a different perspective on classical music than a lot of people. In my case, most pieces bring up memories of many members of my immediate and extended family and myself performing them. Orchestras, wind ensembles, piano, flute, trumpet, violin, vocal/choral -- so many excellent performances over my lifetime. It is such a huge part of my life that I can't separate it from my very heart, nor would I want to. Will God let me keep this gift and add to it for eternity?
I only need to hear the opening bars to break out in tears. The cellos, violins, bassons, clarinets in unison, and the english horn that enters in the lines highest ambitus only to fade away again. The blend is so angelic, the fith partial so strong from the Woods. Im lost trying to difine the timbres only to hear a voice, a such a human voice from the mixture. Where Do you go after you’ve found music like this. Deeper i guess.
It is incredible to consider how far he came from "Die Feen" and ended up with "Parsifal." A great man who, like Siegfried, who dared fight the dragon of human limits and laid it down in the dust!
"The Argonath were fashioned in the likeness of Isildur and Anarion: 'still with blurred eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North. The left hand of each was raised palm outwards in a gesture of warning; in each right hand there was an axe; upon each head there was a crumbling helm and crown"
+Quid Est Veritas the silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom. sheer rose the dreadful cliffs to unguessed heights on either side. far off was the dim sky. black waters roaring and echoing, and wind screaming. "what a place, what a horrible place!"
Ironically in World of Warcraft there is a "nod" to the huge statues. Located in Loch Modan are two statues of ancient dwarven Kings, both with the same gesture. If you see them, you'll know :)
For young people today it's unbelievable, that this masterpieces of music and art by Wagner (and others) are created without computers. Men and women, who can imagine music in their head with about 80 instruments in parallel and a complete libretto.
As someone who's currently writing an opera I can tell you that the orchestration is actually the easiest part! The real difficulty lies in making the music continuos with seemless transitions throughout the entire opera of which Wagner was one of the greatest masters!
As another, but only very amatuer composer, I can concur, it can be very daunting to try to write for an entire orchestra. The hardest part is creating the mood, writing the sequence of notes that can move and capture the emotions. For me to write, I have to have the mood, Ie what I want the piece to say, firmly established , and from that I select the most appropriate key for that mood. Then I first write the entire piece for piano alone. This gives the piece the structure, and from just the piano alone, I can see if the emotional peaks have been achieved. Then using the piano as a template, the background of the story, I will then tackle writing the orchestral piece. Depending on what I am writing, more often than not, I will not include any piano at all, and it is only used as a yardstick and datum to where I want the music to flow and from each instrument. But yes, normally, any of my classical pieces, will have up to five randomly rotating motiffes, that are introduced by separate groups of instruments. Thus i can maintain the general flow, and interest of the piece by the mechanism of changing the motiffes and instruments playing that particular motiffe. @@bende52694
@@drgeoffangel5422 Do you actually write your drafts literally for the piano or do you just notate them in a piano system even though they are unplayable to play on the piano as they are written?
wonder what it was like for the audience who heard this transcendental music for the first time - hope it was heavenly - for me it is one of the most deep and pure expressions of divine love ever expressed in music
from Wikipedia----Hugo Wolf was a student at the time of the 1882 Festival, yet still managed to find money for tickets to see Parsifal twice. He emerged overwhelmed: "Colossal - Wagner's most inspired, sublimest creation." He reiterated this view in a postcard from Bayreuth in 1883: "Parsifal is without doubt by far the most beautiful and sublime work in the whole field of Art." Gustav Mahler was also present in 1883 and he wrote to a friend; "I can hardly describe my present state to you. When I came out of the Festspielhaus, completely spellbound, I understood that the greatest and most painful revelation had just been made to me, and that I would carry it unspoiled for the rest of my life." Max Reger simply noted that "When I first heard Parsifal at Bayreuth I was fifteen. I cried for two weeks and then became a musician." Alban Berg described Parsifal in 1909 as "magnificent, overwhelming," and Jean Sibelius, visiting the Festival in 1894 said "Nothing in the world has made so overwhelming an impression on me. All my innermost heart-strings throbbed... I cannot begin to tell you how Parsifal has transported me. Everything I do seems so cold and feeble by its side.That is really something." Debussy wrote "Parsifal is one of the loveliest monuments of sound ever raised to the serene glory of music."
Before: "Hah hah, ja, let's go out for a jolly night at the opera" After: "Dafuq just happened? Give me a moment. Or maybe a lifetime, I'm not sure yet."
Val Lamon I find I can only listen to it on rare occasions, so intense is the effect on my emotions and nerves. Once a year perhaps,and preferably at Easter.
Magnificently used in 'Excalibur', a great mystic film. Parsifal in search of the Holy Grail is beautifully portrayed in the film accompanied by this miraculous music. I believe Wagner reached the highest heights in Western music.
That is so well stated. Something about Wagner at certain moments, when you're hearing it for the first time, that makes you think I've known this music my entire life, even though you never could have heard it before. Ewig neu und ewig alt. Unendlichkeit irgendwie. One must experience it.
The more I listen to Richard Wagner, the more I get captured and He pulls me into his amazing unbelievable pure Sound of music. He must be from a heavenly planet. ❤️
Beautiful piece. I remember hearing it in the movie "Excalibur." I purposely watched the end credits to make a note of who the composer was. What a masterpiece. Bravo Richard Wagner! Thank you for uploading this.
Avran Northpass The holy grail is a symbolic picture of the human being who receives the impulse of Christ as a spiritual reality. By Christ you gain sanity and the eternal life.
Nikanor Soter in the movie it says one sword, one king, one kingdome. as artuhrs mind gets bright and willing again same happens with his kingdome. same in reality if your mind is bright and your will is strong, you will manage everything, if not you will get lost in chaos and sadness. just saying, the belive in jesus is one way to gain power, but not the only one.
Ludwig wasn't mad at all. One of the very rare nobles to behave decently and use their inheritance for the general good. Calling him mad was presumably a ploy to try to wrest the money from him.
@@TheOneAndOnlyZelenkaGuru i dont mean his settings of religious texts. I mean his musical language, the absolute music. His way how he leads lines and lets them interact with each other, resulting in one higher harmonious construction, system and structure. So for me he kind of processed the real world with its simultanous interaction of several elements in music. There is no musician or composer who teaches us the processes, interactions of elements and as a result the harmony of the world with the medium of absolute music better than Bach. He is a master and philosopher of harmony and perfect shapes.
This is the first time I've ever listened to any kind of classical music. And I'm totally blown away. Amazing really considering I'm middle aged. Wow very moving! piece
Wagner believed that most music was superficial and did not penetrate to the subconscious mind. He was wrong; all music does exactly that, including the humblest, because that's the nature of music. He rejected bourgeois musical forms and adopted what now is called "continuous melody," a radical and monumental esthetic advance that has influenced all serious music since. The "Ring" tetralogy is his best work and is one of the most important artistic achievements in the Western canon.
The limits on classical music doesn't exist. The world ov classical music spreads over the countries. From Italy to Russia, from Germany to England, from Austria to France. Every country has its own character of music. And every character has its best piece.
I often comment that Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler (the Andante moderato of his Sixth) are the forerunners of film music. There is so much you can take from them, they have so much to give.
I want to ask, in all sincerity, is there anything in the world as exquisite as Wagner? The first time I heard this, I involuntarily sobbed at the sheer beauty of it
I would trade the entire genre of rock 'n roll for this piece alone. No sound produced by tens of thousands of guitars and snares over millions of concerts has touched this level of sublime subtlety.
whatever one thinks of the opera's plot, the music is divine--astral years ahead of music then and now--the composer was a genius of the highest order.
Have not seen Lord of the Rings films but I recognized that scene from reading the book decades ago. To pair it with this particular music seems quite fitting.
Interesting that an image from The Lord of the Rings is shown here - as much as I loved Howard Shaw's score for the films, I do wish he included a more Wagnerian style on occasion.
Yes, the film Excalibur (the source of your quote) was an astounding movie, (1970s) using a good deal of Wagner to express the Arthurian legend and the search of Parsifal for the Holy Grail - cup of Christ, though Wagner's music seems to have elevated the story and Mystery of the spiritual search to a new level.
Anyone who loves this wonderful piece of music needs to watch ‘Excalibur’ John boorman’s masterpiece, superb dream sequence between Arthur & Merlin ....truly unforgettable
The music is just the beginning, and then it gets to the voice and that is where it is taken to another level all-together, both human and the spiritual kind. I rehearsed in my own soul and I found some peace.
this music very much evokes howard shore. the music of ancient forests and ruins as shown in this picture and the shadowy, lurking themes associated with gollum. very good
Howard Shore evokes THIS music, not the other way around. Wagner invented film music decades before films existed and LONG b4 LOTR. His music has been hijacked by film composers for nearly 100 years.
This is so far off the mark. It is why so many are deprived of some of the greatest artistic creations to come from the human species. First of all, it has been proved his music was NOT played at the concentration camps. Discredited? Hardly. His Ring cycle is considered by many scholars and artists to be the absolute greatest work of art known to us. The only thing in its league is the "Oresteia" of Aeschylus. With a little effort, millions of people could have genuine religious experiences through Wagner's art and join those of us who have already found this Holy Grail and have been experiencing it for years.
Sorry to disagree, but this is beautiful music, and a perfect image, the Stone Kings at Argonath. I would like this to be played at my funeral, please. Now, please pay attention here: Wagner's music has not been "discredited." The idea that art of any sort can be "discredited" is the same sort of thinking that the Nazis applied to what they called "degenerate" art -- the next step is banning anything you dislike or disapprove of or don't understand, then locking up and executing its practitioners. On the contrary, without Wagner, there would be no magnificent film music: no John Williams, no Patrick Doyle, no Hans Zimmer. Wagner's music is performed regularly in the operas and the concert halls of the world. I think people turn away from Wagner when it gets to the singing. It is too bad. It happens with most opera. But super-titles and the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD are making opera much more accessible. Give it a shot! Parsifal is a tough one. Not much happens, just four hours of sublime music with a glorious message concerning sin and redemption in a human lifetime. Concerning the Nazis' co-optation of Wagner's music for their own purposes, there's a lot of information and discussion at Wikipedia. Personally, I think the everyday "man-in-the-street" Germans had no more use for Wagner than today's everyday music fans do. Those that weren't being sent to their deaths in concentration camps, in labor camps, and on distant battlefields, were too busy surviving the horrors visited upon them by an autocratic madman, a malevolent bureaucracy, and a devastating war. The Jews were murdered in their millions, but so were millions of other citizens across the continent. I can scarcely get my mind around it, sometimes. Great music helps lift me out of the despair that awaits all such thinking. Try listening on CZcams, "An di musik" by Franz Schubert, performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore. It's only four minutes or so, not four hours. Pay attention to a translation of the words. You can do better than your comment suggests, just try harder.
In a world increasingly satisfied by the truly ordinary, Wagner's music stands as a reminder, for those of us who can still think, that we were intended for greater things...
Amen
The endlessness of the limitlessness, of possible.
Comentário perfeito! ❤
Great comment ❤
well said.
Wagner’s music takes you into another beautiful world.
Wagner's music is unique among others. He was the only one to combine such a clear manifestation of emotions with the mood of mystery and magic. I consider him an outstanding model and favorite composer.
For an "emotionless German", he is the utmost most passionate!
You’ll be sitting at Hitler’s table in the afterlife.
You are great on your comments about Wagner geneality...I didn't know Parsifal's Overture ...
Wagner magistral....
When you arrive to Wagner, you know that you reached the pinnacle of Classical Music! At 82-year's young, I hit the bull's-eye! His work has a deep spiritual dimension, blessed are those that can be one with his!
. . . . . . finde ich gut was Sie sagen,
. . . . . WENN DU IHN VERSTEHST!
In welchem Land leben Sie?
Grüße aus Berlin
Dear Lesley, I wish you another 82 years here. I only hit the bull's -eye not a year gone by.
Musica per l'anima. L' anima della Musica.
@@enricopisa6084 Cosi
I got to Wagner at 32. Is something wrong with me? 🙈
Wagner was an absolute genius who, overwhelmingly inspired by the Germanic mythology and sublime legend spirit, gave us the precious gift of their audible embodiment!
Germanic mythology - only in the Ring (and if you look at them exactly, these four operas are actually not about gods, giants, dragons etc. but about humans). Parsifal, like Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, bases on Christian themes. There is also a lot of philosophy and psychology in Wagner's works. Limiting him to the Germanic topics means missing a lot.
And helped Hitler see himself as the one who would deliver the German Empire from everything not pristine, white and christian.
My favorite opera by Wagner. This prelude in particular perfectly encapsulates the feeling of striving on a quest, being led by the light of truth even in the darkest of hours.. Fucking amazing.
I'm no prude, far from it, but thankfully, Wagner didn't need your kind of language to achieve 'that' kind of 'amazing'.
@@TheDon444 The fuck are you on about?
@@ctrl_altesc That you were crude, vulgar and tasteless. And then reaffirmed it. Just brilliant.
@@donaldallen1771 Lol crude, vulgar, and tasteless because I used a curse word? No need to be a self righteous prick about it bud, I am here to appreciate Wagner’s greatness, just like you and everyone else here, you pompous airhead. It’s people like you that create a barrier between opera and classical music. You must either be an old timer, or a miserable jerk-off that everyone just hates to have at parties. Which one is it?
@@donaldallen1771 I may be crude and vulgar, but far from tasteless, I am here to enjoy Wagner’s genius just like everyone else here.. No need to be pompous about it. I didn’t think people in 2024 could be so moved by Wagner, but still have such a weird hang up about a written word used to emphasize Wagner’s genius.
I had a much more abrasive response written out to you, but it seems like youtube removed it since I had some choice words for people like you.
I saw this performed at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth in 1977. In 2020, this takes me back 43 years and I still remember it like it was this afternoon. An experience I will never forget.
@@Yosigoasi - I really was very fortunate to see and hear this. I was in my last year of high school. The FSH is like being inside the sound board of a piano. Pretty amazing!
I am so glad everyone likes this overture!
theaddreport Its just magic.
+theaddreport Excellence beyond all proportions, thank you good Sir!
+TheBlackSheep Yuo're welcome! I am a maam. :D I love Wagner very much and the LOTR series so I put the pictures with the music.
theaddreport Oh I'm so sorry, Thank you Madam :)
TheBlackSheep That's ok! Glad you liked the vid! Check out my other one, with moving pictures from LOTR to Ride of the Valkyries! YOu will love it!
Listening to this is like looking up at the stars a clear night. Stirs my mind.
It’s like journeying near to god.
Wagner's Parsifal definitely stands as "Verwandlungsmusik" (transformational music) but the most eloquent description was by Virginia Wolff who stated that "With Wagner's Parsifal, we have been taken to a place not previously visited by sound." Amen!
My God that's good!!!
“We wander with Parsifal in our heads through empty streets at night, where the gardens of the Hermitage glow with flowers like those other magic blossoms, and sound melts into color, and color calls out for words, where, in short, we are lifted out of the ordinary world and allowed merely to breathe and see-it is here that we realize how thin are the walls between one emotion and another; and how fused our impressions are with elements which we may not attempt.”
- Virginia Woolf
There’s a chord at the climax at the end of the piece that I’ve come to call “the God chord”, because the ethereal otherworldly beauty of it seems somehow beyond humankind. Extraordinary. (exactly at 13:58 but start 10 seconds or so before that to earn it).
That's how Woolf's lesbian lover described her vagina.
'Virginia's heavenly trumpet.'
Wagner's music was the synthesis of arts. He contributed to the development of opera and it was not only music, also poetry, visual arts, ballet etc. His concept was to join all of them together. Truly a brilliant composer
When I first heard this, I was overwhelmed. What kind of unearthly harmonies did Wagner uncover, I thought. To my surprise while playing through the score, they were very ordinary. Only Wagner could take something as simple as an Ab triad and turn it into something so divine. His orchestration and the juxtaposition of melody against the background harmonies is so original. I haven't understood Wagner yet, despite seeing The Ring, and Tristan. But hopefully next year when I see Parsifal, I will finally get what the big deal is. Thank you for sharing!
Dont forget "Tannhäuser's" wonderful ouverture
As I did when I saw Parsifal in London on my own. many years ago. It is THE Desert Island Disc.
Jon Boy, You heard Wagner in Lord of the Rings, NOT the other way around. (Wagner's music preceded any movie or video)
Not really invented by Wagner though. Everything in this opera is influenced by Mendelssohn´s fifth symphony "reformation", chronologically actually his 3rd symphony. Both is based on the same protestant hymn, but the progression of Mendelssohn is actually reflected by Wagner.
What is so amazing about the capability of Wagner's compositions are the complexity of the ever continuously moving harmonies. The 1st time I was aware of this was when I was in high school and we played the overture to Die Meistersinger. After our conductor played recordings of the work, I became aware that there were continuously moving melodies and countermelodies. in fact up to 4 of such, and there were never any discord's. All of that was created in the mind of Wagner with no computers in the 1800s.
It's hard to believe a mere human being came up with music so cosmic and heavenly. It's the sound of the natural beauty of the world.
OM-mm-mm (The sound of the Universes) Parsifal is a Perfect overture to meditate to.
Concordo!
Listen to Barenboim conducting this live on youtube. His harps are much more prominent.
Flowerdoodle2 And now its all shaking ass and titties or smoking blunts. Dear Lord what has Western civilization come to?
This happens when your ego is far away, god and gods enter inside you, you can hear the musical dramas, the music of the spheres
Parsifal is on his way to the temple of the Grail Knights and says: “I hardly move, yet far I seem to have come”, and the all-knowing Gurnemanz replies: “You see, my son, time turns here into space
"Opera" as plural "works" implies a perfect synthesis of performance and orchestra on a stage reserved for the creative impulse. I suppose the Nazis perverted the mystical in Wagner to promote the sensual as material instead. The grail is at the center of a considerable vortex of languages in Literature.
Thank you very much 😊
@@BruceMincks please, hide in a corner
bad ass
"Opera," plural too of "Opus"....Anyone...Nazis or even Methodists are free to understand music, Arthurian literature, the Fisher King...in their own way. Greetings from San Agustinillo!
This overture is magical.
Die Musik kommt direkt aus der Seele eines Suchenden, Verzweiflung , Hoffnung , Erlösung in einem, ein immer wiederkehrendes Flehen, es ist das Opium für eine menschliche Seele
@@sinapflug1159 Recht : diese Musik kann dich alles vergessen machen... aber das können auch Bruckner und Mahler.
@@sinapflug1159 that picture into the video from which film? Do you know? LOTR or smth else?
Wagner is truly a magnificent composer but very complicated to understand. When I listen to his songs, returning from school, it feels like a relief on my back when I listen to one of his works. I hope there will still be people who listen to this wonderful kind of music and not like in this generation, and in all this, I am only 13 years old.
You remind me of myself at that age ( I'm now 53 ). My step-father had an enormous record collection, largely Germanic composers and I inherited a state of the art hi-fi system from his uncle and would throw on Wagner overtures, Beethoven's piano concertos ( no 3 and 4 always blew me away ), and I really began to understand both the evolution of the orchestra during the 19th century and the developments in composition ( listen to later Mozart symphonies then Beethoven then Brahms, and you'll see where Wagner was coming from, and you end up with Mahler and Bruckner at volume 11 and the house is shaking! ). I was reading Lord of The Rings at the time, and that was the backing soundtrack. Great stuff. You've got a lifetime of joy ahead of you.
Let's all humbly thank Ludwig II of Bavaria for saving Wagner, and building his magnificent castles. The king had an ear for music and an eye for magnificent architecture.
And Crazy King Ludwig bankrupted Bavaria.
I've been through Neuschwanstein Castle twice in my life. Magnificent!
@@JillASim So we can owe Ludwig for the People's Republic of Bavaria of 1919 as well XD
@Clinton Pendleton the communist revolution happened because of poverty, deprivation, war torn economy and state bankruptcy. Ludwig was at least responsible for the latter, and arguable for some of the other economic factors. To which can be added a sense of disconnection between the elite and the population.
He was kinda crazy as well
"Parsifal" è un' opera sublime. Così come "Lohengrin". In queste opere Wagner raggiunge le vette del meraviglioso e del prodigioso. La geniale e stupefacente musica penetra nell' anima e suscita ammirazione e pace. Pace che deriva dalla coscienza del meraviglioso.
Das haben Sie sehr schön geschrieben
@@matthiasgebhard3135 Danke
I used to have Mozart as my favourite composer, but here Richard Wagner is ascending slowly and speaking to my melancholic soul.
:)
Don Giovanni, the immolation scene, if you were raised on hell fire, and the conducting is crisp with a first-rate cast, it's powerful.
لىبيااىؤ
If you enjoy this: Vaughan-Williams' 3rd Symphony ("Pastoral") is in my top 10 as one of the more melancholy, haunting, and surreal pieces of music that I've had the pleasure of hearing. I'd highly recommend it.
The first time I heard it, I was driving across Canada. In N. Ontario, with Lake Superior to my right, it came on the radio and I fell in love with it.
Whatever the man was or wasn't, his music is deeply spiritual.
There are those who would like to erase beauty from the world, and there are those who are still moved by listening to the notes of Parsifal. Wagner will live.
Soon this music will be called "racist"...
@@Flat_Earth_Addy It's funny that you say this unironically. This very music likely played over loudspeakers in WW2 concentration camps, as they systemically led people to gas chambers as part of an ethnic cleansing. But yeah, maybe soon it will be called racist.
@@Flat_Earth_AddyYou're right!🥲Globalism must erase the beauty, spirituality, essence of divine in people!
@@honesty3440 At least a few good ones are still out there...
@@Flat_Earth_Addy 👍🏻🙏🏻
If anyone has the chance to watch the whole opera live, run!!! It's to this day one of my most memorable evenings at the MET with Ben Heppner, Wautraud Meier, Thomas Hampson, Rene Pape, Nicolai Putlilin. The set and staging felt like we were in a dream. Absolutely Stunning!!! It's the same version available in video with Meier and Sigfried Jerusalem.
Eliomar Nascimento I hope to one day attend the Bayreuther Fest....
Wagner is often played in the Leipzig Opera by the Gewandhausorchester. One if the best orchestras in the world. People younger than 29 can get a card for 10€
I saw a Parsifal at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan conducted by Riccardo Muti and PlacidoDomingo in the part of Parsifal. It was a wonderful and all-encompassing experience. Parsifal is one of those rare expressions of genius and human sensitivity to which the word "sublime" can be accompanied as due.
Richard Wagner's music ruins everything because once you've heard it, you know there's nothing left to hear........
Il existe d autres chefs- d œuvres composés par des musiciens majeurs qui valent ceux de Wagner, Dieu merci .
Wagner was such an incredibly precocious artist. This overture really sounds like a cinematic soundtrack.
Wagner himself, for all intents and purposes, created the prototype to cinema with the darkened auditorium and invisible choir pit of the Festspielhaus. No wonder his music lives in on our moving images.
The opening two and a half minutes of this magnificent opus have an almost ethereal effect on me. It transports me, it fills me with nostalgia, fantasy, and longing. It never fails to move me.
The patience is one of the things that moves me most.. no need for haste, just to calmly be enveloped in the colors, the sound and the emotion.
Totally different, but not really, is how I am similarly moved by Maurice Andre's recording of the Telemann in D, Air. No-one (but perhaps Johnny Cowell..) ever performed it as he did, with total relaxation, patience, and sensitivity.
Translation (non computer) of my comment below: One thing which makes Wagner's music so special is the development out a delicate quietness growing into melodious, wave-like crescendos, and ultimate dissipation in the sands of a timeless world where nothing but the most beautiful music can be found. Walter Schoenefeld: lover of all things beautiful.
Let me know if you feel the same.
concordo com você Walter.Nem todos tem essa sensibilidade para engrandecer essas músicas desse gigante que foi Wagner.Amo as músicas dos outros compositores,Beethoven Mozart Bach Brams e outros. Ele é especial.
Yes!
concordo, ma non dimenticare Verdi, Puccini, Rossini ecc.
+sesqui1rosso se fossero anche solo lontanamente vicini alle vette musicali espresse da wagner allora avremmo davvero un motivo per non dimenticarcene
+erlebnis89 insomma questa storia degli operisti italiani ad ogni costo ha un po' stufato
I thought I knew what music was...but then I listened to Richard Wagner.
I love it. Great sentence!
He "invented" music in a way...
@@marcooddone7877 - In terms of Western functional harmony, Wagner finished what Bach started.
@@marcooddone7877
As he „invented“ modern antisemitism...
@@dztructive5507 unfortunately it is true...
Composing new pieces is to hear the note in your head before it has ever been played on the instrument(s) you have imagined. What a talent to be born with.
I get really choked up listening to this music. The man was an absolute genius.
richard bird
And he spoke the truth about ...
Travis Carver No he did not. A genius musician, - a pernicious anti-semite in his writings.
@@traviscarver4708 just say what you want to say instead of hiding behind your antisemite dogwhistles
Mediolanum Hibernicus
The Semitic line comes from Shem.
It does not come from Ashkenaz.
#Fail
St. Simon of Trent
Bolshevism
Communism
The talmud
The Kabbalah
Kicked out of every European country at one time or another and, many countries, multiple times throughout history.
Maybe do some research...
@@odb1612 I'm pretty sure he did, and what's with you people calling everything a dog whistle? Its not anti semetic to point out the reality of history and of certain people's
he sounded like he was there. as if he really witnessed the story of Parsifal by his own senses and then somehow traveled as a composer in our reality and transmitted us the emotions as a present of the story via his brilliant music. What an artist. Maybe one of the greatest ever.
Wagner didn' t write opera, he created a completely new form of art. He made the world a better place.
Ein BühnenWeihFestspiel no less!
He was a genius and a renovator: after Wagner, classical music was transformed
lol he was antisemite xD and stop saying that didnt matter, it did. He wrote about it even in letters. Whole mitology of Ring's cycle is built up on it
@@anariondanumenor9675 Indeed he was. Fortunately, the work is far greater than the creator.
@@anariondanumenor9675 : Almost all Germans were antisemite, mainly since Martin Luther who was a badly fanatic Jewish hater! Wagner belongs to the German Resurgence epoch which was fanatically Christian Lutheran. Also Fichte, Hegel and others German philosophers were that way.
We can't judge on artists without their context!
I have a different perspective on classical music than a lot of people. In my case, most pieces bring up memories of many members of my immediate and extended family and myself performing them. Orchestras, wind ensembles, piano, flute, trumpet, violin, vocal/choral -- so many excellent performances over my lifetime. It is such a huge part of my life that I can't separate it from my very heart, nor would I want to. Will God let me keep this gift and add to it for eternity?
I only need to hear the opening bars to break out in tears.
The cellos, violins, bassons, clarinets in unison, and the english horn that enters in the lines highest ambitus only to fade away again. The blend is so angelic, the fith partial so strong from the Woods. Im lost trying to difine the timbres only to hear a voice, a such a human voice from the mixture.
Where Do you go after you’ve found music like this. Deeper i guess.
"Parsifal" was Wagner's 13th and final opera. Amazing when you realize that he was largely self-taught.
Who the f*#% was gonna teach him ?
Being self taught was common in Wagner's day.
It is incredible to consider how far he came from "Die Feen" and ended up with "Parsifal." A great man who, like Siegfried, who dared fight the dragon of human limits and laid it down in the dust!
wasn't brainwashed by the do's and dont's...kept his inner voice intact
I would like a piano concerto from Wagner😍😍😍
"The Argonath were fashioned in the likeness of Isildur and Anarion: 'still with blurred eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North. The left hand of each was raised palm outwards in a gesture of warning; in each right hand there was an axe; upon each head there was a crumbling helm and crown"
+Quid Est Veritas the silent wardens of a long-vanished kingdom. sheer rose the dreadful cliffs to unguessed heights on either side. far off was the dim sky. black waters roaring and echoing, and wind screaming. "what a place, what a horrible place!"
Quid Est Veritas Into the realm of Gondor
the music is perfect indeed for this part of The Lord of the Rings.
I noticed the same, but could not differ from the right to left hand........yes, i live in america
Ironically in World of Warcraft there is a "nod" to the huge statues. Located in Loch Modan are two statues of ancient dwarven Kings, both with the same gesture. If you see them, you'll know :)
For young people today it's unbelievable, that this masterpieces of music and art by Wagner (and others) are created without computers.
Men and women, who can imagine music in their head with about 80 instruments in parallel and a complete libretto.
As someone who's currently writing an opera I can tell you that the orchestration is actually the easiest part!
The real difficulty lies in making the music continuos with seemless transitions throughout the entire opera of which Wagner was one of the greatest masters!
As another, but only very amatuer composer, I can concur, it can be very daunting to try to write for an entire orchestra. The hardest part is creating the mood, writing the sequence of notes that can move and capture the emotions. For me to write, I have to have the mood, Ie what I want the piece to say, firmly established , and from that I select the most appropriate key for that mood. Then I first write the entire piece for piano alone. This gives the piece the structure, and from just the piano alone, I can see if the emotional peaks have been achieved. Then using the piano as a template, the background of the story, I will then tackle writing the orchestral piece. Depending on what I am writing, more often than not, I will not include any piano at all, and it is only used as a yardstick and datum to where I want the music to flow and from each instrument. But yes, normally, any of my classical pieces, will have up to five randomly rotating motiffes, that are introduced by separate groups of instruments. Thus i can maintain the general flow, and interest of the piece by the mechanism of changing the motiffes and instruments playing that particular motiffe. @@bende52694
@@drgeoffangel5422 Do you actually write your drafts literally for the piano or do you just notate them in a piano system even though they are unplayable to play on the piano as they are written?
Feel like saying something new but you’ve all said it...this music justifies living.
wonder what it was like for the audience who heard this transcendental music for the first time - hope it was heavenly - for me it is one of the most deep and pure expressions of divine love ever expressed in music
from Wikipedia----Hugo Wolf was a student at the time of the 1882 Festival, yet still managed to find money for tickets to see Parsifal twice. He emerged overwhelmed: "Colossal - Wagner's most inspired, sublimest creation." He reiterated this view in a postcard from Bayreuth in 1883: "Parsifal is without doubt by far the most beautiful and sublime work in the whole field of Art." Gustav Mahler was also present in 1883 and he wrote to a friend; "I can hardly describe my present state to you. When I came out of the Festspielhaus, completely spellbound, I understood that the greatest and most painful revelation had just been made to me, and that I would carry it unspoiled for the rest of my life." Max Reger simply noted that "When I first heard Parsifal at Bayreuth I was fifteen. I cried for two weeks and then became a musician." Alban Berg described Parsifal in 1909 as "magnificent, overwhelming," and Jean Sibelius, visiting the Festival in 1894 said "Nothing in the world has made so overwhelming an impression on me. All my innermost heart-strings throbbed... I cannot begin to tell you how Parsifal has transported me. Everything I do seems so cold and feeble by its side.That is really something." Debussy wrote "Parsifal is one of the loveliest monuments of sound ever raised to the serene glory of music."
Before: "Hah hah, ja, let's go out for a jolly night at the opera"
After: "Dafuq just happened? Give me a moment. Or maybe a lifetime, I'm not sure yet."
I heard it for the first time now, and it was heavenly
Beauty will save the world (Fiodor Dostoievski)
Val Lamon I find I can only listen to it on rare occasions, so intense is the effect on my emotions and nerves. Once a year perhaps,and preferably at Easter.
Magnificently used in 'Excalibur', a great mystic film. Parsifal in search of the Holy Grail is beautifully portrayed in the film accompanied by this miraculous music. I believe Wagner reached the highest heights in Western music.
If he would reincarnate, and only dedicate his life to music, I believe he would compose even better pieces. But yes, nothing beats Wagner.
WAGNER, there is no substitute or equal, music for the eternal in all of us !!!....
That is so well stated. Something about Wagner at certain moments, when you're hearing it for the first time, that makes you think I've known this music my entire life, even though you never could have heard it before. Ewig neu und ewig alt. Unendlichkeit irgendwie. One must experience it.
This performance is utterly profound and beautifully executed.
Briana Martin indeediloodideed
Ok......so whose is it? Does anyone know who the performers are on this recording? The uploader is MIA or is at least oddly silent about it.
@@mrlopez-pz7pu Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & Alfred Scholz. It's in the details.
@@mrlopez-pz7pu You can read it above in the description: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & Alfred Scholz.
r.i.p dad, this song was his final goodbye. Never heard of this before but it gives me shivers everytime now
This is better than a thousand ASMR Videos. It tingles down the spine listening to this music.
Hollywood garbage took over the music and entertainment business
Asmr is to relax! This is to awaken the spirit
A majestic and mystical ouverture with a wonderful-magical background. Wagner is great!
So potentially calming for any troubled spirit at the end of a trying day.
Parsifal , es una meravella ❤
The more I listen to Richard Wagner, the more I get captured and He pulls me into his amazing unbelievable pure Sound of music. He must be from a heavenly planet. ❤️
Listen to his "Lohengrin"-ouverture, too. Also so beautiful
Beautiful piece. I remember hearing it in the movie "Excalibur." I purposely watched the end credits to make a note of who the composer was. What a masterpiece. Bravo Richard Wagner! Thank you for uploading this.
great movie too
My favorite movie! Turned me on the to Wagner and Carmine Burana.
What is the secret of the grail? who does it serve?
Avran Northpass
The holy grail is a symbolic picture of the human being who receives the impulse of Christ as a spiritual reality. By Christ you gain sanity and the eternal life.
Nikanor Soter
in the movie it says
one sword, one king, one kingdome.
as artuhrs mind gets bright and willing again same happens with his kingdome.
same in reality if your mind is bright and your will is strong, you will manage everything, if not you will get lost in chaos and sadness.
just saying, the belive in jesus is one way to gain power, but not the only one.
I was lucky to live in magical Bavaria in the mountains lakes and castles and this music
Wagner a God amongst the Gods
good on you! Bavaria is one of my beautiful palces to be visited
King Ludwig II would have agreed with you.
@Taylor Novia Same here.
amongst the Gods of music
Bavaria is God's own country! Patrona Bavariae!
This music is just à masterpiece ! I can't get bored to hear it
Hands down, these are some of the most beautiful sound I've ever heard... its unearthly
I feel trapped by the modern world when I listen to this.
me too
Michele Vick non sentirti intrappolato (trapped) quando ascolti questa musica, ma libero come un uccello🐦 in volo, feel free like a bird in fight.
flight, no: fight
he meant flight - volo
Snake Stomper 44 o
I wasn't a big Wagner fan before, but this just blew me away.
Evokes wonders, conjures up fantasy. Deeply expressive music.
Wonderful Music , nothing compares with this great Overture!!!
Ludwig wasn't mad at all. One of the very rare nobles to behave decently and use their inheritance for the general good. Calling him mad was presumably a ploy to try to wrest the money from him.
I think Wagner carry on German idealism in philosophy better than any composer. You really feel how deep he is.
Indeed it's universal feeling. Hegelian construction.
Bach is the greatest music-philosopher
@@L1102 Religion isn't a philosophy
@@TheOneAndOnlyZelenkaGuru i dont mean his settings of religious texts. I mean his musical language, the absolute music. His way how he leads lines and lets them interact with each other, resulting in one higher harmonious construction, system and structure. So for me he kind of processed the real world with its simultanous interaction of several elements in music. There is no musician or composer who teaches us the processes, interactions of elements and as a result the harmony of the world with the medium of absolute music better than Bach. He is a master and philosopher of harmony and perfect shapes.
@@L1102 He is a master of polyphony sure, but not philosophy.
❤ Richard Wagner Masterful 🎶
At times it's even more beautiful to read the comments than to listen to the music itself
This happens with Wagner.
This is the first time I've ever listened to any kind of classical music.
And I'm totally blown away. Amazing really considering I'm middle aged. Wow very moving! piece
try listening to Wagner's Tannhauser overture/ pilgrims chorus or Siegfried's funeral march. As far as wagner goes this is my least favorite accually
Wagner believed that most music was superficial and did not penetrate to the subconscious mind. He was wrong; all music does exactly that, including the humblest, because that's the nature of music. He rejected bourgeois musical forms and adopted what now is called "continuous melody," a radical and monumental esthetic advance that has influenced all serious music since. The "Ring" tetralogy is his best work and is one of the most important artistic achievements in the Western canon.
***** Thank you for your advice. I'll take it. Thanks
The limits on classical music doesn't exist. The world ov classical music spreads over the countries. From Italy to Russia, from Germany to England, from Austria to France. Every country has its own character of music. And every character has its best piece.
Wagner is a great first introduction to classical! You will remember this piece as long as you live, trust me.
I often comment that Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler (the Andante moderato of his Sixth) are the forerunners of film music. There is so much you can take from them, they have so much to give.
Avec Wagner, nous entrons dans une autre dimension!
oui oui
Verdade Beatriz. As Músicas de Wagner é de outra dimensão.
D'accord
Et comme le dit Gurnemanz: « Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit »
Bien sūr!
20 April today and i came to listen this due to the birthday of a great man!
This music goes to your heart and brain. My absolute favourite
Heart, mind and soul. Not meer brain.
Listening to Wagner is almost too much. My mind almost seems to explode from the sheer prowess.
Me alegra saber que la música trasciende sobre el tiempo, los clásicos nunca morirán y siempre nos reconfortar el alma. Danke Wagner.
An overture to one of the greatest works of all time! Beautifully played. Thanks CZcams.
I want to ask, in all sincerity, is there anything in the world as exquisite as Wagner? The first time I heard this, I involuntarily sobbed at the sheer beauty of it
he he. wagner has a way of inducing involuntary sobs.... :)
SCHUBERT.....!!
Richard Wagner lived in another dimension! Maybe earth was this beautiful and inspiring before machinery.
This piece inspires such a profound emotional response from within my soul, and I can't wait to hopefully meet Wagner one day!
I think.... I hope he meant in heaven, Wagner died in the 19th century.
Read his biography.
@@MrSanjayV Tristan meant in Heaven
I would trade the entire genre of rock 'n roll for this piece alone. No sound produced by tens of thousands of guitars and snares over millions of concerts has touched this level of sublime subtlety.
Maybe you know both styles superficially..
Idiot
Dunno... Sister Ray has its moments
But can the sublime be subtle?
Hendrix **machine gun**?
Божественная музыка. Музыка Света.
A masterpiece.
This scene is so beautiful with this song. Love the whole atmosphere to it.
classical music helped me to find a new meaning for the words rush and calm, and to find out the right moment and place for them in my life.
Isso vai além de tudo e para tudo! Wagner era divino e será sempre!
whatever one thinks of the opera's plot, the music is divine--astral years ahead of music then and now--the composer was a genius of the highest order.
Opera plots can get a little silly sometimes but you're right. It's the music!
No, it is Gesamtkunstwerk
I liked Parsifal, I thought it was one of Wagner's better Opera's. Probably not as good as the ring trilogy, but still great
Well, I think Parsifal is highly symbolic.
@Wes Wagner's Ring is 4 operas, not a "trilogy." You are thinking of Lord of the Rings.
my favorite composer, something about his music reaches into my soul and take it on a marvelous journey
This is such a gorgeous version - no other version I have heard ends on the note at the end. Utterly beautiful.
'Where have you been all these long years, Merlin? If only you were here, to see me wield Excalibur one more time.' Man, chills!
A dream for some...
@@johntim3491 …a nightmare to others!
Have not seen Lord of the Rings films but I recognized that scene from reading the book decades ago. To pair it with this particular music seems quite fitting.
Interesting that an image from The Lord of the Rings is shown here - as much as I loved Howard Shaw's score for the films, I do wish he included a more Wagnerian style on occasion.
Go watch Excalibur...
@@thegreatbamboozler4837 Yes, I have seen that film many times thanks, including on the big screen on its release. Love it!
Ethereal and other worldly - and, truly magnificent!
Es ist so fantastisch!!! Gänsehaut!!!
Word.😖.
How can people not like this?? Sheesh!
People more interested in politics, and anti-german propaganda.
/*scrolls up*/
243 downvotes
Dafuq?
I thought you were joking.
"What is the secret of the grail? Who does it serve? Who am I? Have you found the secret that I have lost?"
Yes, the film Excalibur (the source of your quote) was an astounding movie, (1970s) using a good deal of Wagner to express the Arthurian legend and the search of Parsifal for the Holy Grail - cup of Christ, though Wagner's music seems to have elevated the story and Mystery of the spiritual search to a new level.
This is one of my favorite pieces by Wagner. Thanks for sharing.
One of the most evocative compositions ever written ...
Wagner, always leading us gently toward the heroic ...
Ich finde es immer schön, wenn die Angelsachsen so auf deutsche Musik abgehen :)
Die ganze Welt kommuniziert auf Englisch , nicht nur die Angelsachsen.
@@EdgardoPlasencia Wohl wahr.
Anyone who loves this wonderful piece of music needs to watch ‘Excalibur’ John boorman’s masterpiece, superb dream sequence between Arthur & Merlin ....truly unforgettable
This wondrous piece of music gives me chills every time. It’s just breathtaking.
The music is just the beginning, and then it gets to the voice and that is where it is taken to another level all-together, both human and the spiritual kind. I rehearsed in my own soul and I found some peace.
this music very much evokes howard shore. the music of ancient forests and ruins as shown in this picture and the shadowy, lurking themes associated with gollum. very good
maybe it was the ruins of rome the burgundians were seeing. the ivy clad statues in groves, the crumbling aqueducts, mossed over shrines...
9:25 on for a bit is very howard shorey and even recalls of them on the river
yes
Howard Shore evokes THIS music, not the other way around. Wagner invented film music decades before films existed and LONG b4 LOTR. His music has been hijacked by film composers for nearly 100 years.
I agree. It's damn sad more people don't listen to Wagner.
Probably because of the Nazis?
I'll add to this: Hitler and his top lieutenants were Wagner fans and if I remember correctly Wagner's female relative married one of the top Nazi's.
Not that I do that!
This is so far off the mark. It is why so many are deprived of some of the greatest artistic creations to come from the human species. First of all, it has been proved his music was NOT played at the concentration camps. Discredited? Hardly. His Ring cycle is considered by many scholars and artists to be the absolute greatest work of art known to us. The only thing in its league is the "Oresteia" of Aeschylus. With a little effort, millions of people could have genuine religious experiences through Wagner's art and join those of us who have already found this Holy Grail and have been experiencing it for years.
Sorry to disagree, but this is beautiful music, and a perfect image, the Stone Kings at Argonath. I would like this to be played at my funeral, please. Now, please pay attention here: Wagner's music has not been "discredited." The idea that art of any sort can be "discredited" is the same sort of thinking that the Nazis applied to what they called "degenerate" art -- the next step is banning anything you dislike or disapprove of or don't understand, then locking up and executing its practitioners. On the contrary, without Wagner, there would be no magnificent film music: no John Williams, no Patrick Doyle, no Hans Zimmer. Wagner's music is performed regularly in the operas and the concert halls of the world. I think people turn away from Wagner when it gets to the singing. It is too bad. It happens with most opera. But super-titles and the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD are making opera much more accessible. Give it a shot! Parsifal is a tough one. Not much happens, just four hours of sublime music with a glorious message concerning sin and redemption in a human lifetime. Concerning the Nazis' co-optation of Wagner's music for their own purposes, there's a lot of information and discussion at Wikipedia. Personally, I think the everyday "man-in-the-street" Germans had no more use for Wagner than today's everyday music fans do. Those that weren't being sent to their deaths in concentration camps, in labor camps, and on distant battlefields, were too busy surviving the horrors visited upon them by an autocratic madman, a malevolent bureaucracy, and a devastating war. The Jews were murdered in their millions, but so were millions of other citizens across the continent. I can scarcely get my mind around it, sometimes. Great music helps lift me out of the despair that awaits all such thinking. Try listening on CZcams, "An di musik" by Franz Schubert, performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore. It's only four minutes or so, not four hours. Pay attention to a translation of the words. You can do better than your comment suggests, just try harder.
Parsifal has been my sitzfleisch music forever and it will never leave my conscience as long as I live......
THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF THE MUSIC
"Perhaps the greatest genius who has ever lived!"
WH Auden ( 1907 - 1973 ) on Wagner ( 1813 - 1883 )
SUBLIME! Wagner talks to my soul like no other.
Chilling mysticism.
This music is just Amazing and beautiful.
Listening to this while thinking of the great Christopher Lee- RIP.