Wagner was true to his sources (especially, in this context, Wolfram) in so far as Parsifal tells the story of an individual's development. As the hero grows in wisdom, so his music develops. Parsifal's personal motif changes a little at each appearance, until it finally blazes forth in its final form (example B) as the hero enters the hall of the Grail bearing the recovered Spear. Hans-Joachim Bauer noted that the development potential of example A is not only limited to melodic, harmonic and rhythmic changes, since there are also changes of orchestration that Wagner employs to show the changes in the hero whom the motif describes. Bauer draws attention to the deeply sad and resigned impression given by the motif as it appears in a minor variant in the lower brass, at the start of the third act; through which it develops into the splendour of example B.

The first example (A) shows the Parsifal motif as it accompanies his first appearance: a fanfare introducing a carefree huntsman. It is a bold and brash theme, which Lorenz describes as being revealed at first piecemeal (in Bruchstücken). On closer examination it is seen to have developed from an added-sixth chord containing the first four notes of the Grundthema (#1). This indicates that the respective destinies of Parsifal and the Grail Knights are linked; which is confirmed by the opening notes of the Prophecy motif almost hidden at (b). Yet Bauer comments that the Parsifal motif seems almost not to belong to the Grail domain; the hero is at first, and for a long time, an outsider. The notes shown in red (a) are the germ cell from which the music of the Good Friday Meadows will develop. Note that the fragment (c) has been absorbed from the Riding motif, which suggests that Parsifal is destined to meet Kundry and Klingsor. Lorenz identified the last chord of the third bar (with E natural in the bass) as a mystical chord.

