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Question  |
Although Wagner said that he had dispensed with the Question
that features in his
sources, there is a Question that appears several times in
Parsifal. This three note fragment is heard first in the orchestra, when Parsifal
reveals that he does not know the meaning of good and evil. Wagner wrote to King Ludwig that this knowledge was the meaning of the kiss.
The Question motif is a thematic element that can be found within several other motives: Nature's Healing (#9), Klingsor's Magic (#10), Agony (#14), and Curse (#29).
In his Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner, volume IV, Alfred Lorenz
identified another figure as das Urmotiv der Frage
, the basic motive of the
Question: g, f#, a.