The trumpets then announce the =Motive of Faith=, severe but sturdy--portraying superbly the immutability of faith.
The Grail Motive is heard again and then the Motive of Faith is repeated, its severity exquisitely softened, so that it conveys a sense of peace which "passeth all understanding."
The rest of the _Vorspiel_ is agitated. That portion of the Motive of the Sacrament which appears later as the Spear Motive here assumes through a slight change a deeply sad character, and becomes typical throughout the work of the sorrow wrought by _Amfortas's_ crime. I call it the =Elegiac Motive=.
Thus the _Vorspiel_ depicts both the religious duties which play so prominent a part in the drama, and unhappiness which _Amfortas's_ sinful forgetfulness of these duties has brought upon himself and his knights.
Act I. One of the sturdiest of the knights, the aged _Gurnemanz_, grey of head and beard, watches near the outskirts of the forest. One dawn finds him seated under a majestic tree. Two young _Esquires_ lie in slumber at his feet. Far off, from the direction of the castle, sounds a solemn reveille.
"Hey! Ho!" _Gurnemanz_ calls with brusque humour to the _Esquires_. "Not forest, but sleep warders I deem you!" The youths leap to their feet; then, hearing the solemn reveille, kneel in prayer. The Motive of Peace echoes their devotional thoughts. A wondrous peace seems to rest upon the scene. But the transgression of the _King_ ever breaks the tranquil spell. For soon two _Knights_ come in the van of the train that thus early bears the _King_ from a bed of suffering to the forest lake nearby, in whose waters he would bathe his wound. They pause to parley with _Gurnemanz_, but are interrupted by outcries from the youths and sounds of rushing through air.
"Mark the wild horsewoman!"--"The mane of the devil's mare flies madly!"--"Aye, 'tis Kundry!"--"She has swung herself off," cry the _Esquires_ as they watch the approach of the strange creature that now rushes in--a woman clad in coarse, wild garb girdled high with a snake-skin, her thick black hair tumbling about her shoulders, her features swarthy, her dark eyes now flashing, now fixed and glassy. Precipitately she thrusts a small crystal flask into _Gurnemanz's_ hand.