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CutTime Players™ - Storylines

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

The next piece is one of our favorites to perform. It describes the mischievous adventures of a legendary German character named Till Eulenspiegel (OY-len-shpee-gul). He was "a real rascal", whose "practical jokes" were based upon the life of an actual person from the 15th Century. The stories of his life were exaggerated and grew to mythological proportions in German history up until the time that the famous German composer Richard Strauss wrote this music that cleverly describes his "merry pranks".

Strauss found a way to describe Till and some of the things he did with a musical form called a Tone Poem, which is music that tells a story or describes someone/something using only music (no singing allowed!). Strauss came up with two very rascally themes which actually represent Till throughout the music. The 1st theme seems to represent Till’s "philosophy"; his somewhat "noble purpose" of getting people to "lighten up". The other theme seems to represent Mr. Eulenspiegel in action! And like most classical music after Beethoven, this theme comes back again and again in the music; like a musical hero who survives all kinds of adventures.

When someone writes a tone poem, they usually base it only loosely to a story or an event; preferring instead to capture a few contrasting ideas or a general mood. Till Eulenspiegel however is exceptionally programmatic! The music suggests many specific adventures to us. And it is up to us to imagine just what those adventures are! So we'll use our imaginations here to give you ideas about what you think Till Eulenspiegel might be doing in the music!

At first these adventures are somewhat silly and innocent but they become more life-threatening as more and more people are out to catch him. In fact, you could think of him as a cartoon; sort of like a Bugs Bunny! He disguises himself and everyone is out to catch him because he insists on being disruptive, but he’s just too quick and clever to catch. He wrecks havoc on everyone’s seriousness: after the music sounds serious for a while, he winks at us from his disguise and pulls a prank like giving the mayor a hotfoot. He dresses up as a monk (sounding pious) just to steal the robe off the high-priest during worship. He makes a beautiful woman think he loves her deeply, only to stick his tongue out at all of them! He even steals the barline to his own music!

You’ll hear that after a long and very noble chase, Till is caught and brought to trial before a judge. But through it all, Till remains unconcerned until his sentencing of "GUIL-TY!" but his high spirit seems to live on after his execution.