That’s Til Lindeman I think. 
Till Eulenspiegel is a German legend, based on an actual medieval jester or some such. Till’s many pranks made him unpopular with the ruling castes, and they had him executed. Yes, the execution can be heard in the symphonic poem.
Programme Music: Music of a narrative or descriptive kind… Programme music, which has been contrasted with Absolute Music, is distinguished by its attempt to depict objects and events.
To summarize the rest of a long definition, the “programme” of a piece (and that’s “program” for the US contingent amongst you) can be as specific as depicting a dog barking or a battle, or as vague as depicting a general feeling of “pastorality”. Another manifestation of this is the use of short themes or motives to represent specific things or ideas. Wagner takes this to an extreme in his Ring Cycle, where virtually everything and everyone has its own little leitmotif: the Ring, Siegfried, his sword, fire, etc.
In contrast, absolute music is music without a deliberate program. Your average string quartet doesn’t necessarily mean anything – it’s music for music’s sake. The two types of music do get muddied a bit when extramusical elements get imposed on the music afterwards – Barber’s Adagio started life as a string quartet movement, and achieved its status as Official Depressing Music later. Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra is forever linked with 2001. This doesn’t make it programme music, technically, but such associations do tend to stick regardless.
Very true, just a minor detail: Zarathustra is in fact programmatic, though not because of 2001.
The opening bars that everyone knows are supposed to depict the sunrise. The subsequent parts have titles that correspond to chapters of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra.
Curiously, this genre of music is highly popular among laymen, while experts don’t seem to appreciate it much (neither today nor 100 years ago).
Of course it is. I even knew that. Bad example. :smack: :smack: :smack: **
I suppose the snob factor accounts for some of that; even the great unwashed can identify bird noises imitated by the flute section, but to appreciate the subtleties of a piece of chamber music requires somewhat more experience and/or education on the matter (or so some would say ;)).
Let us not forget Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, which for many of us was the first example to which we were exposed.
::recalls the Disney 8mm educational film release where the hornytoad chases the insects across the sand in “On The Trail”::