Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Till Eulenspiegels Merry Pranks is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, written in 1894–95 and dedicated to his friend Arthur Seidl. It was first performed on May 6, 1895, by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under Franz Wüllner.
The music tells the adventures of Till Eulenspiegel, a clever German peasant prankster, who is represented by two main tunes. One is a happy horn melody that rises and then falls to three long notes. The other is a sly, wheedling tune for the D clarinet, hinting at the tricks Till will play.
The piece opens with a “Once upon a time” feeling. The horn plays the Till theme twice, and the rest of the orchestra then repeats the theme in a light, rondo-like form, ending the opening section with two quick notes. The clarinet theme follows, sounding Till’s laughter as he plans his next prank.
The music follows Till across the countryside: he rides a horse through a market and disrupts the wares; he jokes about the stern clergy (represented by the violas); he flirts with and chases girls (the love theme is given to the first violins); and he mocks serious scholars (the bassoons).
The lively horse-music returns and the first Till theme is heard again throughout the orchestra. Then the mood changes to a funeral march. Till is captured and sentenced to death for blasphemy. The headsman’s march begins as Till tries to wheedle his way out, but he fails and is hanged. The D clarinet, with a drumroll from the flutes, paints the moment of the drop, the death scream, and the tightening rope, while the strings’ pizzicato suggests the rope snapping.
After a moment of silence, the opening Till theme returns, hinting that someone like Till cannot be destroyed, and the piece ends with one last musical joke.
The work is written for a large orchestra. There is a piano four-hands version, recorded by Percy Grainger and Ralph Leopold. In 2021, Edition Peters published a chamber-ensemble arrangement for 12 players by Germán García Vargas. It was also staged as a ballet with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky in 1916.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 12:31 (CET).