Hexatonic Poles and the Uncanny in Parsifal

Abstract

Example 1, reproduced from a 1930 harmony treatise of Sigfrid Karg-Elert, depicts a hexatonic pole, a progression (in either direction) between a major and a minor triad that features semitonal motion in each of the three upper voices.1 In a previous article, I demonstrated that hexatonic poles are frequently called upon by composers to depict uncanny phenomena, and suggested that this association follows from a homology between features of the progression and of the uncanny as it was understood by early twentieth-century psychology.2 The examples used in that article were brief, and drawn from a broad array of music, including several from Parsifal. As Karg-Elert's annotation of Example 1 suggests, those examples were merely the toe protruding from the sheets of the music drama. This paper demonstrates that Parsifal's abundant hexatonic poles are woven into a semantic network that is deeply enmeshed in the uncanny aspects of Wagner's final music drama.

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