Till Eulenspiegel - Strauss (1864-1949)

Till Eulenspiegel was historically the son of a German peasant in the fourteenth century and his life illustrates a growing awareness of the rights of the "lower" classes against the rulers and tyrants of the period. The first printed version of Till's life was published at the start of the sixteenth century with translations into many European languages soon following together with an expanding collection of anecdotes based on his merry pranks. No one from royalty down to the poorest citizen escaped the attentions of his jokes and escapades. Although Strauss had intended to write a one-act opera on the life of Till, he abandoned sketches for his opera in favour of an orchestral piece musically depicting the legendary character in all his capriciousness. Till Eulenspiegel was, without doubt, a seminal work for the composer, audiences and orchestral players. Using larger orchestral forces than he had dared employ before and incorporating virtuoso orchestral writing that had not previously been envisaged, Strauss heralded a new era in orchestral technique. With these innovations and the daring, spectacular and assured handling of the score, Strauss has given us a remarkable composition which is rightly a mainstay of the modern orchestral repertoire.

Although at first unwilling to divulge the exact nature of the programme of events inherent in the music, Strauss noted in the score important references to our hero's acts. A gentle opening theme, "Once upon a time", is followed by a bold call on the solo horn, "A roguish joker whose name was Till Eulenspiegel". This bold motif and the mocking theme given to the shrill E flat clarinet, "A rascally scamp", form the basis for all the rich musical inventiveness to follow. We hear Till on horseback riding straight through a gathering of market women then, in the confusion, he is "off and away in seven-league boots". Hiding in a mouse-hole, he cautiously appears and is soon off on his next adventure dressed as a priest and sporting a mock guise of solemnity and sanctity. In the midst of delivering a sermon he is seized with a horrid premonition as to the dangerous consequences of his mockery of religion. Overcoming his anxieties, depicted by a headlong glissando from the top to the bottom note of a solo violin, Till is soon "The cavalier, exchanging sweet courtesies with beautiful girls". He soon falls in love, allowing Strauss to indulge in an unashamedly romantic passage of music. However, his amorous approaches are rejected and, with a defiant statement of the first theme from the whole horn section, he promises to take his revenge on all mankind.

His next venture is to question a group of pedagogues where the mock seriousness of the occasion is fittingly portrayed by the lower wind instruments. Strauss noted, "After he has posed a couple of atrocious theses to the philistines, he leaves them to their fate dumbfounded". Till then reveals his true nature hurling abuse at the assembly which draws a great trill from the whole orchestra which Strauss called his "Grosse Grimasse". Never one to stick around too long, Till dances away down a nearby alley with a jaunty theme and his vanishing into the distance is marked by a solemn passage of music headed "fleeting and ghostly". With fresh vigour Till embarks on a further period of chaos until, heralded by a loud side-drum roll, he is called before the court to face the music. Still whistling nonchalantly, Till feigns indifference until too late he realises that he has gone too far. "Up the ladder with him! There he dangles, the breath leaves his body, the last convulsion and Till's mortal self is finished". Strauss' music describes graphically and explicitly the desperate scene right down to Till's final broken shudder.

However, this is after all a folk tale and Strauss puts the tale into perspective by introducing the opening "Once upon a time" theme as if to say that after all Till was a loveable rogue and perhaps not deserving of such an untimely end to his career. The spirit of Till is resurrected in the final bars to bring this inspired masterpiece to a satisfying conclusion.

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