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Parsifal Richard Wagner Comparison

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Richard Wagner was a German composer who revolutionized the opera genre of music. He composed over thirteen different operas throughout his life, but some of his librettos wouldn't receive the credit they deserve until long after his death. By composing his works with the unique style of writing the music as well as the libretto, he was arguably ahead of his time while setting a new standard for future composers to come. The similarities and differences between the first and last operas he composed help to demonstrate the evolution of Wagner's music over time, while also showing what has remained constant during his career. In comparing and contrasting Die Feen, one of his first works, with Parsifal, one could hope to gain a better understanding …show more content…

It should be pointed out that Wagner spent much more time composing his final opera than he did on his first. Wagner worked on Parsifal on and off for more than thirty years, while he barely spent a fraction of that amount of time composing his first opera (Rovi). He finished Die Feen when he was only twenty years old, clearly showing that he did not put as much time into trying to perfect his work. His final opera, Parsifal, is often referred to as one of his best compositions, reflecting the amount of time and effort he put into working on it before deeming it complete. It conveys that Wagner became somewhat of a perfectionist later on in his career, as his mature works took longer to finish than those he had composed when he was younger. Something else that should be noted, is that Parsifal is much longer than Die Feen. Parsifal has thirty-nine movements, while Die Feen only has twenty. This is most likely due to the fact that Wagner took a longer amount of time before he finally came around to completing Parsifal. Wagner introduced different arrangements in Parsifal that were unprecedented in his previous works, such as the specific composition complementing the acoustics that are in his Bayreuth theater. The complexity of his last opera is much greater than most of those that came before it. Die Feen was his introductory piece that would serve as a stepping stone to where his career would finally come to an end. Despite both operas, having a source of inspiration before their composition, the content of these two particular operas shows no relation. Die Feen was inspired by a fantasy tale that had to do with romance, while Parsifal was inspired by the epic poem that centered more around religion. Finally, the uniquity of his last opera is made apparent by the use of the contrabassoon. Wagner had implemented the contrabassoon one

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