This motif appears, in its first extended form, in connection with the pain of Amfortas. Later it becomes clear that the motif is also associated with the suffering of the Saviour (the connection being that both Christ and Amfortas were wounded by the same Spear). The Agony motif develops from the Grundthema together with a little fragment or germ cell, the turned figure (#9A) that appears towards the end of the prelude to the first act, and which also forms part of the motif of Nature's Healing. At the heart of this cell is the Suffering motif (#4), blending into the Question motif (#31). But the essence of the Agony motif is its short form, marked on both examples as (x). On comparison with the Grundthema, we see that this originates in #1G.
In his Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner, volume IV, Alfred Lorenz reported
that, according to Dr. Otto Strobel, this germ cell did not appear in the version of the prelude
that was performed at Haus Wahnfried on 25 December 1878. In that version those bars contained
the variant of the Spear motif (1C), ending with a rising semitone,
that Lorenz called the Compassion motif, Mitleidsmotiv
.
According to Wagner's biographer Glasenapp, Wagner thought the passage in the first version was
too sentimental
. Therefore the presentiment of Agony in the
first act prelude was an afterthought.
In its second extended form (B), known as the Saviour's Complaint
(Heilandsklage
), the Agony motif is blended with
the second part of the Grundthema (#1B), which as we have seen is
associated both with the Guilt of Amfortas, and with the Spear (#1F).
Agony