Tom Grey, The Grail Realm as Sacred Space in ‘Parsifal’

November 2026, Volume 20, Number 3, 28–47.

‘You see, my son, here time becomes space.’ This Zen-like koan offered by Gurnemanz to Parsifal upon his admission to the Grail Temple, apparently at the Grail’s own behest, has always exerted a special fascination. Although their progress is initiated by the distinctly earthbound, march-like musical material derived from the motif of the Grail bells that will accompany the procession of the Grail Knights in the subsequent Temple Scene, Parsifal is struck by the sense that he ‘barely walks’ (ich schreite kaum), instead feeling himself mystically transported. In Wagner’s original Bayreuth production a Wandeldekoration or scrolling backdrop landscape was used to project Parsifal’s mystical transportation, a hopelessly low-tech, laborious material expedient, in front of which Gurnemanz and Parsifal merely walked discreetly in place. It was the music, of course, that was entrusted with the transcendental effects.