On 1 May 1924, the male voice choir of the Wiener Schubertbund serenaded Strauss in honor of his sixtieth birthday outside his house on Mozart-Platz. The choirmaster, Viktor Keldorfer, took the opportunity to ask if Strauss might write a piece for the choir and suggested the poetry of Joseph Eichendorff as a possible text. Eichendorff was a very popular Romantic poet whose songs had been set many times by composers, such as Hugo Wolf. Indeed, Strauss had used Eichendorff in earlier choral works and was to turn to Eichendorff twenty years later for one of his Four Last Songs, Im Abendrot, also about a time of the day. His response to Keldorfer's suggestion was to comment about the poet: "Good! Very good! He is a full blooded romanticist who is close to me". The idea developed slowly in Strauss' mind, and Keldorfer heard nothing until in 1927 he received an invitation to visit Strauss at his home in Garmisch where Strauss showed him three of a four movement song cycle based on poems from Eichendorff's Wanderlieder. In this initial version, Strauss had composed an orchestral opening, a depiction of dawn leading to the first line of the poem "Fliegt der erste Morgenstrahl". Keldorfer suggested an alternative opening in which the choir sang a cappella using a verse from Eichendorf's poetic novellaDie Glücksritter. Del Mar comments that the verse had been used previously by Hans Pfitzner, which might have put Strauss off. However, he duly obliged Keldorfer and replaced the orchestral introduction with the a cappella opening. Del Mar writes about Die Tageszeiten:
Although the shape of the pieces arise from the form of the Eichendorff poems, the style of the music depends on the instrumental textures... whilst the vocal lines adopt a relatively subordinate role. The peaceful second movement has its roots firmly planted in German folk-song, though its conventionality is qualified by Strauss' calculated indifference to the rules of strict part writing. the movement conjures up both the sultry heat and provides an attractive contrast to the more vivacious movements which flank it... The last two songs run continuously, Evening merging appropriately into Night with haunting suggestions of distant storms. The final song is a peaceful and attractive Nocturne which opens with a horn solo and has a middle section filled with birdsong and atmospheric orchestration. The work ends with a hymn like repetition of the final verse.
Strauss did not conduct the premiere in Vienna on 21 July 1928. He did conduct the piece with the Wiener Schubertbund the next year, on 23 January 1929.
Lyrics
Richard Strauss based the lyrics for Die Tageszeiten on the following poems by Joseph Eichendorff :
Introduction (a cappella)
Wann der Hahn kräht auf dem Dache, Putzt der Mond die Lampe aus Und die Stern ziehn von der Wache Gott, Gott behüte Land und Haus.
Morning
Afternoon Rest
Evening
Night
Choir and orchestra
The male voice choir is scored for two tenor parts and two bass parts. The orchestra consists of:
