Richard Strauss composed his nine tone poems during roughly three genesis periods. Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche [Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks], op. 28 (1895) originated while he was Kapellmeister in Weimar during which time his other tone poems Macbeth, Don Juan, as well as Tod und Verklärung [Death and Transfiguration] were also composed.
After Strauss had relentlessly forged ahead with his work on Guntram, his first opera, in Weimar and later on his recuperative travel to Greece and Egypt, its premiere was — to say the least — a terrific failure. In his stage debut he deliberately and blatantly followed Wagner's example — and this not only in his choice of subject, but also by personally authoring the libretto. As Alexander Ritter was seeking a successor and perfecter of the path that Wagner had taken, he had considerably encouraged Strauss here. Guntram might indeed have been a failure, nevertheless it could not deter Strauss from constantly seeking new operatic subject matter.
After his return from Egypt he finally gave precedence among his ideas to a "Till" topic and began working on the draft text for a folk opera with the title planned as Till Eulenspiegel bei den Schildbürgern [Till Eulenspiegel Among the Simpletons]. Apart from a few thematic sketches, nothing musical has survived of this planned opera. Without doubt Guntram's failure was one major reason why Strauss returned to the musical form with which he had already previously celebrated significant successes and had mastered (at least since Tod und Verklärung): The tone poem, that musico-programmatic field he retrospectively viewed as a precursor to his Salome.
Strauss dedicated the score “To his dear friend, Dr. Arthur Seid” who belonged to his close circle of Munich friends. As early as 9 June 1895 Strauss wrote his publisher Eugen Spitzweg in Munich: “I've reconsidered it — in view of the large and fine sacrifice you made for 'Guntram' (which, it is to be hoped, will be worthwhile for you, too, that this time I shall give you the 'Eulenspiegel'. If you really care that much about the work and if you think you can do something with it — about that I ask your frank opinion, for my intention to do you a favor is thwarted if you think you are making a new sacrifice for me by publishing this large new work. So, frankly: If I am really doing you a favor by letting you have 'Till Eulenspiegel' then they are yours - otherwise a candid refusal does not offend me at all and does not change the fact that I am also remaining loyal to you in the future. ..”
A letter to Franz Wüllner was sent off the same day to Cologne: “I have a new symphonic poem: Till Eulenspiegel – very humorous and high-spirited — ready in score:” Wüllner also conducted the premiere of Till Eulenspiegel on 5 November 1895, after Strauss had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts. Like many others, Wüllner also asked Strauss for precise programmatic indications while preparing the premiere. Strauss replied to him on 20 October 1895: “It is impossible for me to give a program for Eulenspiegel: Put into words, what I was thinking in the individual sections would often look damned odd and excite a lot of offense. — This time we'll just let the people themselves crack open the nuts that the rogue feeds them.” and he continues: “Please regard this as a private communication: Comments in the score, such as 'ardently in love', etc. [will] certainly round out immediate understanding of the meaning of the individual episodes' content, ditto 'pathetic: his confession, etc., etc. Greetings to you, and this time let the amusing people of Cologne guess what musical pranks a rogue has played on them.”
The search for a programmatic description of Till Eulenspiegel also did not let up in the years to come. Only for a music guide that he penned was Wilhelm Mauke able to find himself in the fortunate position of persuading Strauss to point out a few things.
Notes by Nick Pfefferkorn translated by Margit McCorkle are extracted from the Urtext full score published by Breitkopf & Härtel, 2020