Wagner's compositional procedure, as shown by surviving sketch material, has been widely discussed, firstly in the pioneering work of Otto Strobel, and more recently by Curt von Westemhagen, Robert Bailey and John Deathridge. Detailed studies of this type concern Rienzi, Siegfrieds Tod, Der Ring and the first act of Tristan. Discussions of sketches for Parsifal, however, have either been restricted to arguments of nomenclature or to a general description of their nature rather than their content; that is, we are merely made aware of the fact that there are two musical drafts of the complete opera, to use Strobel's terminology, the ‘composition sketch’ and the ‘orchestral sketch’, the first being written in pencil on two instrumental staves under a vocal line, and the second more detailed version being in ink with the instrumental parts now on up to four or five staves, and the vocal parts on as many as two to three staves. This apparent neglect seems even more curious when one discovers the wealth and nature of the sketch material that survives for Parsifal.