For not only was the theatre long
closed to him, but, by an additional irony, he was obliged to conduct
musical rubbish at the opera in Berlin, on account of the poor taste in
music--really of Royal origin--that prevailed there.
The first great symphony of this new period was _Till Eulenspiegel's
lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise, in Rondeauform_ ("Till
Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, according to an old legend, in rondeau
form"), op. 28.[173] Here his disdain is as yet only expressed by witty
bantering, which scoffs at the world's conventions. This figure of Till,
this devil of a joker, the legendary hero of Germany and Flanders, is
little known with us in France. And so Strauss's music loses much of its
point, for it claims to recall a series of adventures which we know
nothing about--Till crossing the market place and smacking his whip at
the good women there; Till in priestly attire delivering a homely
sermon; Till making love to a young woman who rebuffs him; Till making a
fool of the pedants; Till tried and hung. Strauss's liking to present,
by musical pictures, sometimes a character, sometimes a dialogue, or a
situation, or a landscape, or an idea--that is to say, the most volatile
and varied impressions of his capricious spirit--is very marked here.
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