Joseph Joachim Raff was born on 27 May 1822 in the
small town of Lachen, on the shores of lake Zürich in
Switzerland. His father, Joseph, was a native of
Empfingen, in Württemberg, south west Germany. In
1811, Joseph Raff had fled south to avoid compulsory
conscription into Napoleon's army. After spells as
organist & music teacher in a monastery in Wettingen
and also in Lucerne, he set himself up as a
schoolmaster in Lachen. In time he married the daughter
of the local cantonal president - Kat...(+)
Joseph Joachim Raff was born on 27 May 1822 in the
small town of Lachen, on the shores of lake Zürich in
Switzerland. His father, Joseph, was a native of
Empfingen, in Württemberg, south west Germany. In
1811, Joseph Raff had fled south to avoid compulsory
conscription into Napoleon's army. After spells as
organist & music teacher in a monastery in Wettingen
and also in Lucerne, he set himself up as a
schoolmaster in Lachen. In time he married the daughter
of the local cantonal president - Katharina Schmid. The
Raff family was poor but young Joachim had a basic
education from his father. The boy was later sent to
the Rottenberg Gymnasium in his father’s native
Württemberg to study philosophy, philology and
mathematics before financial pressures on the family
forced his return to Switzerland. He finished his
education with two years at the Jesuit Seminary in
Schwyz, where he carried off prizes in German, Latin
and mathematics. When Raff left Schwyz in 1840 it was
to return to Rapperswil, near Lachen, to begin work as
a teacher. As a child, though, Raff had already shown
great natural talent as a pianist, violinist and
organist, performing at the Sunday concerts in the
nearby spa of Nuolen. Having taught himself the
rudiments of music, he began to compose too.
The Ten Songs for Mixed Choir were Raff's only set of
secular part songs for SATB choir and were his last set
of a capella songs to be published. As with most of his
larger collections, the songs have no common theme and
were composed over a substantial period of time, in
this case between 1860 and 1874, but the set is unusual
in having a common author, the Hessen priest/poet Franz
Alfred Muth (1839-90). Raff's op.198 was published by
Seitz of Leipzig in 1875.
He endured poverty in Zürich, working as a musician,
but his great opportunity came when he learned of an
appearance by his idol Liszt on 19 June 1845 in Basle,
some 80 kilometres away. Determined to hear Liszt play
but being unable to pay the fare to Basle, Raff walked
there from Zürich through driving rain. He arrived
just as the concert was about to begin to find that all
the tickets were sold. Luckily Liszt’s secretary
Belloni noticed the dejected, disappointed Raff and
told Liszt, who decided not only that Raff should be
admitted, but insisted that he should sit on the stage
with him amidst a widening pool of water from his wet
clothes. "I sat there like a running fountain," Raff
wrote later "oblivious to everything but my good
fortune in seeing and hearing Liszt".
Many of Raff’s works were premiered in Wiesbaden,
sometimes with Raff himself conducting, but his
world-wide fame spread until he came to be regarded as
one of the foremost composers of his day - the equal of
Brahms and Wagner. His skill at orchestration was
prodigious and his ability as a melodist was
universally praised, but he was not without his
critics. Their main charge was grounded on the
accusation that Raff was a Vielschreiber - someone who
wrote (too) much and was too unselfcritical. He was
accused of being an eclectic whose style was a
synthesis of other composers’ styles rather than
being his own. They felt that Raff’s natural aptitude
was for character and salon pieces, rather than the
symphonies, concertos and chamber music which he
continued to produce. Raff could be a blunt and
tactless person, who revelled in argument and enjoyed
confrontation. He did little to placate his critics,
however, and with growing success tended to become
arrogant. "He was too proud" wrote even his daughter
Helene.
Success brought official recognition in the form of six
decorations and, in 1877, what for him was probably the
crowning glory. Raff was appointed to a ten year term
as the first director of the newly opened Hoch
Conservatory in nearby Frankfurt, having been preferred
over such illustrious younger candidates as Brahms and
Rheinberger. The family moved to Frankfurt, where Raff
spent the rest of his life. He proved to be a very able
and forward looking musical administrator, quickly
establishing the conservatory as one of the foremost in
the country. He engaged other eminent musicians as
staff of the conservatory, most notably the pianist
Clara Schumann and the singer Julius Stockhausen. Once
he took over in Frankfurt, his vielschreiber days in
Wiesbaden were behind him. Though he never stopped
composing, and some of his last works were amongst of
his most ambitious, he wrote much less than before.
Source: Raff.org
(https://www.raff.org/life/outline.htm).
Although originally scored for Piano, I created this
Interpretation of the "Villanella" (Opus 98) for String
Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
