In it he depicts the bringing to earth by
the hands of angels of the Holy Grail, the vessel in which Joseph of
Arimathea caught the last drops of Christ's blood upon the cross. With
the opening chords we seem to see the clear blue expanse of heaven
spread before us in spotless radiance. As the Grail motive sounds for
the first time _pianissimo_ in the topmost register of the violins, a
tiny white cloud, scarcely perceptible at first, but increasing every
moment, forms in the zenith. Ever descending as the music gradually
increases in volume, the cloud resolves itself into a choir of angels
clad in white, the bearers of the sacred cup. Nearer and still nearer
they come, until, as the Grail motive reaches a passionate _fortissimo_,
they touch the earth, and deliver the Holy Grail to the band of faithful
men who are consecrated to be its earthly champions. Their mission
accomplished the angels swiftly return. As they soar up, the music
grows fainter. Soon they appear once more only as a snowy cloud on the
bosom of the blue. The Grail motive fades away into faint chords, and
the heaven is left once more in cloudless radiance.
A noticeable point in the score of 'Lohengrin' is the further
development of the beautiful idea which appears in 'Tannhaeuser,' of
associating a certain instrument or group of instruments with one
particular character. The idea itself, it may be noticed in passing,
dates from the time of Bach, who used the strings of the orchestra to
accompany the words of Christ in the Matthew Passion, much as the old
Italian painters surrounded his head with a halo.
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