From wikipedia:
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (German: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, 1894-95), Op. 28, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, chronicling the misadventures and pranks of the German peasant folk hero, Till Eulenspiegel. The two themes representing Till are played respectively by the horn and the clarinet.
The horn theme is a lilting melody that reaches a peak, falls downward,
and ends in three long, loud notes, each progressively lower. The
clarinet theme is crafty and wheedling, suggesting a trickster doing
what he does best.
Analysis
The work opens with a 'Once upon a time' theme, with solo horn
bursting in with two repetitions of the first Till theme. The theme is
taken by the rest of the orchestra in a rondo form (which Strauss spelled in its original form, rondeau), and this beginning section concludes with the tutti
orchestra repeating two notes, along the lines of a child's "ta da!".
The clarinet theme is heard next, suggesting Till's laughter as he
plots his next prank. The music follows Till throughout the
countryside, as he rides a horse through a market, upsetting the goods
and wares, pokes fun at the strict Teutonic clergy, flirts and chases
girls (the love theme is given to soli first violin), and mocks the
serious academics.
The music suggesting a horse ride returns again, with the first
theme restated all over the orchestra, when the climax abruptly changes
to a funeral march. Till has been captured by the authorities, and is
sentenced to beheading for blasphemy. The funeral march of the headsman
begins a dialogue with the desperate Till, who tries to wheedle and
joke his way out of this predicament. Unfortunately, he has no effect
on the stony executioner, who lets fall the ax. The D clarinet wails in
a distortion of the first theme, signifying his death scream, and a
pizzicato by the strings represents the actual execution. After a
moment of silence, the 'once upon a time' theme heard at the beginning
returns, suggesting that someone like Till can never be destroyed, and
the work ends with one last quotation of the musical joke.
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