Abstract
In this study, I discuss Roger Scruton's last book, devoted to Wagner's Parsifal, in the light of Scruton's previous books on Wagner (particularly his book on Wagner's Ring) and his aesthetics of music in general. This is done against the background of Scruton's differentiation between symbolic and allegoric readings of art, and their implementation in an analysis of Wagner's leitmotifs that, as I claim, is of a broader philosophical significance and can be made use of, e.g., in a complex reading of Hegel's "master and slave" parable.