Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a German-Swiss

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Biography

Raff was born in Lachen in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. His father, a teacher, had fled there from

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in Russia. Joachim was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster in

Schmerikon Schmerikon is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. In the local Swiss German dialect it is called ''Schmerike''. Geography Schmerikon is located at the head of Lake Zu ...

Schwyz The town of Schwyz (; french: Schwytz; it, Svitto) is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the '' ...

and

Rapperswil Rapperswil ( Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dia ...

. He sent some of his piano compositions to

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

who recommended them to

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...

for publication. They were published in 1844 and received a favourable review in

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

's journal, the ''

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834. His ...

'', which prompted Raff to go to

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

and take up composition full-time. In 1845, Raff walked to

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

to hear

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

play the piano. After a period in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

where he became friends with the conductor

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for es ...

, he worked as Liszt's assistant at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

from 1850 to 1853. During this time he helped Liszt in the

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...

of several of his works, claiming to have had a major part in orchestrating the

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

''. In 1851, Raff's

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

''König Alfred'' was staged in Weimar, and five years later he moved to

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

where he largely devoted himself to composition. From 1878 he was the first Director of, and a teacher at, the

Hoch Conservatory Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. There he employed

Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...

and a number of other eminent musicians as teachers, and established a class specifically for female composers. (This was at a time when women composers were not taken seriously.) His pupils there included

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites ''Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...

and Alexander Ritter. He died in Frankfurt on the night of June 24/25, 1882. His tomb is in

Frankfurt Main Cemetery The Frankfurt Main Cemetery (German: ''Hauptfriedhof'') is the largest cemetery in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was opened in 1828. The cemetery is located directly adjacent to two Jewish cemeteries—the Old Jewish Cemetery, F ...

Compositions

Raff was very prolific, and by the end of his life was one of the best known German composers, though his work is largely forgotten today. (Only one piece, a

cavatina Cavatina is a musical term, originally meaning a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is now frequently applied to any simple, melodious air, as distinguished from brilliant arias or recitatives ...

for violin and piano, is performed with any regularity today, sometimes as an encore.) He drew influence from a variety of sources - his eleven symphonies, for example, combine the Classical symphonic form, with the Romantic penchant for

program music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...

and

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

orchestral writing which harks back to the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. Most of these symphonies carry descriptive titles including ''In the Forest'' (No. 3), ''Lenore'' (No. 5) and ''To the Fatherland'' (No. 1), a very large-scale work lasting around seventy minutes. His last four symphonies make up a quartet of works based on the four seasons. A complete cycle of all his symphonies and many other orchestral works was recorded in the early 2000s by the

Bamberg Symphony The Bamberg Symphony (German: Bamberger Symphoniker – Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie) is a German orchestra based in Bamberg. It is one of the most prestigious orchestras in Germany. The orchestra was formed in 1946 mainly from German musicians e ...

under Hans Stadlmair. Raff's Symphony No. 3 "In the Forest" was enthusiastically received by the audience at that time, spread quickly to England and America and was one of the most played orchestral pieces in the world at the end of the 19th century. It fell into oblivion together with Raff himself, but influenced many later romantic composers including

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

in his famous "Pathétique" for example.

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

conducted some performances of the symphony in 1931.Liner notes on Bernard Herrmann recording of Symphony No. 5 ''Lenore'' The ''Lenore'' symphony (No. 5), famous in its time, was inspired by a ballad of the same name by

Gottfried August Bürger Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, '' Lenore'', found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian ada ...

that also inspired works by several other composers, including

Maria Theresia von Paradis Maria Theresia von Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was a ...

(1789), Henri Duparc,

(late 1850s, mentioned by Alan Walker in his Liszt biography vol. 2), for example. The world premiere recording of ''Lenore'' was made in 1970 by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

conducted by

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely re ...

, who championed Raff's orchestral music. He described it as "one of the finest examples of the Romantic Programme School - it deserves a place alongside the ''

Symphonie fantastique ' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...

'' of Berlioz, Liszt's ''

Faust Symphony ''A Faust Symphony in three character pictures'' (german: Eine Faust-Symphonie in drei Charakterbildern), S.108, or simply the "''Faust Symphony''", is a choral symphony written by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Go ...

'' and the ''

Manfred Symphony ''Manfred'' is a ''"Symphony in Four Scenes"'' in B minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Opus 58, but unnumbered. It was written between May and September 1885 to a program based upon the eponymous 1817 poem by Byron, coming after the composer' ...

'' of Tchaikovsky".

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

was a pupil of

, a friend of Raff's, and it has been said that Strauss was influenced in his early works by Raff. For example, Raff's Symphony No. 7 ''In the Alps'' (1877) could be compared with Strauss's ''

An Alpine Symphony ''An Alpine Symphony'' (''Eine Alpensinfonie''), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 125 players and a ty ...

'' (1915). Much of Raff's music has been said to forecast the early works of

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...

. Raff also composed in most other genres, including

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

and works for solo piano. His chamber works include five

violin sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed form ...

s, a

cello sonata A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for solo cello with piano accompaniment. The most famous Romantic-era cello sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were written in the 1 ...

, a

piano quintet In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...

, two

piano quartet A piano quartet is a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio consisting of a violin, viola and cello. Piano quartets for ...

s, a

string sextet In classical music, a string sextet is a composition written for six string instruments, or a group of six musicians who perform such a composition. Most string sextets have been written for an ensemble consisting of two violins, two violas, and ...

and four

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of musi ...

s. Many of these works are now commercially recorded. He also wrote numerous suites, some for smaller groups (there are suites for piano solo and suites for string quartet), some for orchestra and one each for piano and orchestra and violin and orchestra.

Works

Raff's works include:

Symphonies

* ''Große Symphonie'', WoO. 18 (before 1860; lost, scherzo and finale included in the Orchestral Suite No. 1, Op. 101) * Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 96 "An das Vaterland" (1859–61) * Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 140 (1866) * Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 153 "Im Walde" (1869) * Symphony No. 4 in G minor, Op. 167 (1871) * Symphony No. 5 in E major, Op. 177 "Lenore" (1870–72) * Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 189 "Gelebt, Gestrebt, Gelitten, Gestritten, Gestorben, Umworben" (1874) * Symphony No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 201 "In den Alpen" (1875) * Symphony No. 8 in A major, Op. 205 "Frühlingsklänge" (1876) * Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 208 "Im Sommer" (1878) * Symphony No. 10 in F minor, Op. 213 "Zur Herbstzeit" (1879) * Symphony No. 11 in A minor, Op. 214 "Der Winter" (1876, unfinished; completed by

Max Erdmannsdörfer Max Erdmannsdörfer (14 June 184814 February 1905) (sometimes seen as ''Max von Erdmannsdörfer'') was a German conductor, pianist and composer. He was born in Nuremberg. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, becoming concertmaster at Sonders ...

)

Concertos

*Konzertstück "La Fée d'amour", for violin and orchestra Op. 67 (1854) *Konzertstück "Ode au printemps" in G major, for piano and orchestra, Op. 76 (1857) *Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 161 (1870–71) *Suite for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 180 (1873) *Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 185 (1873) *Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 193 (1874) *Suite for Piano and Orchestra in E-flat, Op. 200 (1875) *Cello Concerto No. 2, WoO. 45 (1876) *Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 206 (1877)

Suites

*Suite for Orchestra No. 1, Op. 101 (1863) *Italian Suite for Orchestra in E minor, WoO. 35 (1871) *Suite for Orchestra No. 2 in F major "In ungarischer Weise", Op. 194 (1874) *Suite for Orchestra "Aus Thüringen", WoO. 46 (1877)

Opera

* ''König Alfred'', heroic opera in four acts (Weimar, 9 March 1851) * ''Die Parole'', comic opera in three acts * ''Dame Kobold'', comic opera in three acts (Weimar, 1870) * ''Benedetto Marcello'', lyric opera in three acts, loosely on the life of the composer

Benedetto Marcello Benedetto Giacomo Marcello (; 31 July or 1 August 1686 – 24 July 1739) was an Italian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher. Life Born in Venice, Benedetto Marcello was a member of a noble family and in his compositions he is f ...

Other orchestral works

* Orchestral pieces, Op. 85 * Jubilee overture, Op. 103 (1864) * Festival overture, Op. 117 1864) * Concert overture, Op. 123 (1862) * ''Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott, Ouvertüre zu einem Drama aus dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg'' (A mighty fortress is our God", Overture to a drama about the Thirty Years' War), Op. 127 (1854; revised 1865) * Rhapsody for Orchestra "Abends", Op. 163b * Festival March, Op. 139 * Sinfonietta, Op. 188 * Elegy for Orchestra, WoO. 48 * Orchestral Prelude to Shakespeare's "The Tempest", WoO. 50 * Orchestral Prelude to Shakespeare's "Macbeth", WoO. 51 * Orchestral Prelude to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", WoO. 52 * Orchestral Prelude to Shakespeare's "Othello", WoO. 53 * Grand Fugue for Orchestra, WoO. 57 * Overture to ''Benedetto Marcello'' * Overture to ''Dame Kobold'', Op. 154 * Overture to ''Die Parole'' * Orchestration of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

's Chaconne from Violin Partita No. 2

Chamber music

*String Quartet No. 1, Op. 77 *String Quartet No. 2, Op. 90 *Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 102 *Piano Quintet, Op. 107 *Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 112 *String Quartet No. 3, Op. 135 *String Quartet No. 4, Op. 136 *String Quartet No. 5, Op. 137 *Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 155 *Piano Trio No. 4, Op. 158 *String Octet, Op. 176 *String Sextet, Op. 178 *Sinfonietta for 10 Wind Instruments, Op. 188 (2fl, 2ob, 2cl, 2bn, 2hn) *String Quartet No. 6, Op. 192 No. 1 ''"Suite in Ancient Style"'' *String Quartet No. 7, Op. 192 No. 2 ''"The Maid of the Mill"'' ie Schöne Müllerin*String Quartet No. 8, Op. 192 No. 3 ''"Suite in Canon Form"'' *Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 202 No. 1 *Piano Quartet No. 2, Op. 202 No. 2 *Fantasy for Piano Quintet, Op. 207a

References

;Notes

External links

*An encyclopedic site devoted to Raff's works, with reviews, sound clips, and discussion forum
Raff.org

;Sheet music * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raff, Joachim 1822 births 1882 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery German classical pianists German male classical composers German male pianists German opera composers German Romantic composers Hoch Conservatory faculty String quartet composers Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Male classical pianists Male opera composers People from Rapperswil-Jona Swiss classical composers Swiss classical pianists 20th-century Swiss composers