JOACHIM RAFF
A Brief Sketch
by
Dr David C F Wright
Like Brahms, the Swiss composer Joseph Joachim Raff
objected in some degree to the German movement known as the music of
the future. Traditional ideas were his brief and therefore he was somewhat
against Liszt, Wagner and the moderns and on the side of the Schumanns
and Brahms. Yet Raff orchestrated some of Liszt's works at Weimar. It
was a very stupid feud with letters of invective passing between musicians
and their supporters and inflammatory articles in newspapers and other
journals. Schumann founded 'David's club' in 1834 to fight, what he
called, musical philistines.
Raff is only really known for his famous Cavatina,
Op. 85 no. 3, yet he wrote eleven symphonies, two concertos each for
violin and cello respectively, a piano concerto and several chamber
works and songs. He also wrote opera.
Fortunately his concertos, symphonies, piano trios
and some of the quartets are now available on CD.
Raff was born in Lachen on the Lake of Zurich on 27
May, 1822. His father was Franz Joseph Raff from Wurttemberg who during
the Napoleonic Wars had fled to Switzerland to avoid being called up
to fight just as Britten and Pears were to do when the Second World
War threatened. Raff senior literally went into hiding but eventually
became a teacher in Lachen.
He was both a very strict schoolteacher and father
and was positively disliked by most of the children. While there is
no evidence of cruelty there is evidence of his competence and his devotion
to humanism with its liberal human values and disregard of religion
and its concepts.
When young Raff was twelve years old he was sent to
school in Rottenburg close to where his father had lived. He then attended
the Jesuit Lyceum of Schwyz earning first prizes in German, Latin and
mathematics. He became a schoolmaster. He had taught himself the piano.
He began to compose and sent his first compositions to Mendelssohn who,
in 1843, recommended some be published by Brietkopf and Härtel
and wrote to that publishing firm to say so. Mendelssohn described the
works as elegant and flawless.
Raff met Mendelssohn in Cologne in 1846 and would have
studied with him but Mendelssohn died the following year.
In 1845 Raff met Liszt whom he admired greatly. The
feud that would engulf Raff later was years away. Liszt was the greatest
pianist of his and of all time. He could sight-read the most difficult
works without difficulty.
Mendelssohn's death left Raff very distraught. He had
expected Mendelssohn to continue as his personal musical ambassador.
Raff continued to study at home and at Stuttgart where
he met von Bülow who took up his Concertstück for piano and
orchestra and performed it on 1 January 1848.
King Arthur was composed in Stuttgart in 1847
and this opera was reworked and first performed on 9 May 1851.
The young composer became engaged to Doris Genast in
1856 . She was the daughter of a well-known actor. He followed her to
Wiesbaden where they married in 1859.
Liszt had come to the rescue of the young man in his
financial difficulties and employed him as his secretary from 1850 to
1856 in Weimar. In gratitude Raff took up the Lisztian cause of the
New German Music, the music of the future. He was employed in writing
out parts, entertaining the increasing number of people in Liszt's society
and friends and hangers-on. He also composed and wrote textbooks which
revealed that he was a progressive musician.
But in 1854 he made a very big mistake. He wrote a
book entitled ‘The Wagner Question’. Wagner was in Liszt society and
no one considered that there was any question or debate about Wagner
and his genius. And so from within the camp was this treatise by a 32
year old who was dependent on this group in which Wagner was criticised.
Not all that was written was criticism. In fact Raff admired much of
Wagner's work.
Raff was given the cold shoulder in Weimar and his
happy relationship with Liszt suffered. This is why Raff left Liszt
in 1856 to become freelance moving to Wiesbaden where he lived form
the next twenty one years. Liszt had tried to get Raff a patron in Vienna
by the name of Mecchetti but he died when Raff was on his way to meet
him.
The life of a freelance composer is precarious. Even
more so when there is a cloud hanging over you. He had little success
at first.
Things changed in the 1860s.
He had two string quartets written. He was to write
another six although the last three are described as Suites and number
seven is described as after Wilhelm Muller's Die Schöne Müllerin.
It was time to write a symphony.
His Symphony no. 1, An des Vaterland, Op. 96,
appeared in 1863 and the Symphony no. 2 in C, Op. 140, appeared in 1869.
People took notice of his Symphony no. 3, Im Walde,
(In the Forest), Op. 153, premiered in 1870 and which was heard
throughout the musical world in a space of a few years. Even New York
welcomed it.
This year also saw the completion of his comic opera
Dame Kobold.
The impressive Symphony no. 4 in G minor, Op. 167 dates
from 1871
The Symphony no. 5, Leonore, Op. 189, was first
performed in 1872 and was equally a success. It is a splendid piece
with a magnificent march. The orchestration is excellent.
It meant that he could devote himself to major works
rather than churn out little piano pieces for people and their children
who had the money to have a small piece written for them. But then a
composer has to work to receive an income and it is not always realised
that supply and demand was the rule of the day.
His first concerto, the Violin Concerto no. 1 in B
minor, Op. 161 was written. This was followed by a Piano Concerto in
C minor, Op. 185, the Cello Concerto in D minor, Op. 193 and the Violin
Concerto no. 2 in A minor, Op. 206.
The Symphony no. 6, Op 189 of 1876 has a curious title
Lived, Strived, Suffered, Quarrelled, Died and Wooed. It has
been said that this was a heroic statement proclaiming triumph over
suffering.
Chamber music poured from his pen and he was gaining
a reputation among the people that mattered.
In 1877 he was appointed director of the new Hoch Conservatory
at Frankfurt-am-Main. To be the first director of a music college was
some responsibility. He had to appoint faculty members. He appointed
Clara Schumann and Julius Stockhausen of the Schumann-Brahms party and,
to balance his appointments, engaged Joseph Rubinstein of the Liszt-Wagner
party.
But this was his second big mistake.
Quarrels flared up between the opposing factions. Stockhausen
resigned and the new conservatory was already in disarray.
The year 1877 was the date of his Symphony no. 7, Op
201, subtitled In the Alps.
Raff was not a arrogant man. He did not use his position
to feather his own nest by concentrating on performances of his own
works. He was not a Wagner or a Britten. Raff had no ambition to promote
himself.
His Symphony no. 8, Frühlingslange, Op.
204, made its appearance in 1878.
Probably his most famous pupil was the American Edward
MacDowell who was born in New York in 1860. He went at first to the
Paris Conservatoire in 1876 before going on the Raff in 1879. Like Raff
he is only remembered by one piano piece To a Wild Rose. Like
Raff he was to become the first musical director of a music department
- in his case, Columbia University, New York. Sadly, he was knocked
down in a street and for the last three years of his life was insane.
He died in 1908.
The MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire was conceived
in his memory.
MacDowell tried to start a revival of Raff's music
after the Swiss composer's death but to no avail.
Raff was an accomplished pianist and able to compose
some fine music. If his music has faults it is in that sometimes it
is merely businesslike and some of his music is expansive, inactive
and thin.
But he kept composing. Symphony no. 9, In Summer,
Op 208 appeared in 1880 closely by Symphony no. 10, Zer Herbstzat,
Op 213. The Symphony no. 11, Der Winter, Op 214 was unfinished
at his death and was completed by Erdmannsdoerffer.
Raff died suddenly on 25 June 1882 in Frankfurt. He
was sixty years old.
He was a good composer and deserving of the recent
interest in his music.
Copyright David C F Wright 1997.
"This article or any part of it must not be copied, downloaded,
stored in any retrieval system or used in any way without the prior
permission of the author."
