[Cosima Wagner's diary entry for 16 February 1876]After lunch he shows me his latest album leaf, "an attempt to be American", and says it is the chorus the women will sing to Parzival:
Komm, schöner Knabe!
Nature or Caressing SongThe example shows one of the themes associated with the Flower
(or Magic) Maidens. It accompanies the seductive Komm, holde Knabe, which
Wolzogen called the Caressing Song (Kosemelodie). Interestingly,
this motif contains a phrase (A) that also appears in Nature's
Healing as #9B. It may be concluded that this subsidiary motif represents Nature. Although the Flower Maidens are magical creatures of Klingsor,
they are of natural origin. Von Wolzogen expressed it as follows: All this happens like a cheerful, laughing child's play and entirely without the character of intentionally seductive sensuality. It is the grace of nature in its full power, intoxicating as if playing, which exercises the enchantment of an extremely agreeable surprise upon the ignorant captives of its miracles. |
 Above: Bayreuth postcard showing Parsifal with the flowermaidens (act two). |
Wagner's joke about "an attempt to be American," refers to the piece he was working on when this inspiration arrived: the Centennial March which had been commissioned from him by the State of Philadelphia.
Note that this variant of the Nature motif does not contain the Question motif.