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Till is one of those essential excerpts we all learn, and it has a correct interpretation. One person who got the correct interpretation directly from a source that knew how it was meant to be played was Philip Farkas.
He was told how to play it as a young first horn player by Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony and student of Richard Strauss. This quote from Philip Farkas & His Horn by Nancy Jordan Fako lays it out very well:
Stock was very kind to Phil, often calling him in to discuss how certain passages should be played so that Phil would not be embarrassed at rehearsals. In March 1937, during Phil’s first season, they were to play Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel. Stock had studied composition and conducting with Strauss and had first conducted Till under Strauss’ tutelage. In one of their meetings, Stock explained to Phil exactly how Strauss had intended the horn call to be played. After Stock’s death, the Chicago Symphony once again did Till Eulenspiegel, this time with the Viennese conductor Karl Böhm. Böhm was amazed and delighted at Phil’s interpretation of the call, telling him that he was the only horn player who played it correctly. Phil related to Böhm his discussion of Till with Stock, which brought an immediate laugh from the maestro, who had been in the same conducting class with Frederick Stock when Richard Strauss had explained how he wanted the horn call to be played.
Wow! But unfortunately the book leaves the topic there, it does not reveal the correct interpretation.
However, Farkas students know some version of the story, which he fortunately also related directly in a session at the 1989 Southwest Horn Workshop. For more on how to play Till from Farkas, in his own words, check out Episode 50 of The Horn Notes Podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, etc., or at the link below.
Hornnotes 50: Let’s Talk about Till and Farkas
[The short version of what the correct interpretation is involves the initial tempo being derived from the introduction, the experimental nature of the accelerando, and maintaining the full tempo. But listen to Farkas for the full story.]
