Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882)
- Die Tageszeiten, Op.209 (1880)
Performers: Tra Nguyеn (piano); Sångkrаft Chamber Choir;
Symphony Orchestra of Norrlаnds Opera; Andrea Quіnn (conductor)
Further info: Joachim Raff: Works for Choir, Piano & Orchestra
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German composer, critic and teacher. His father, a teacher and organist
who had fled to Switzerland from the Black Forest to avoid military
conscription during the Napoleonic wars, taught him to play the violin
and organ and to sing. He was educated at the Jesuit Gymnasium in
Schwyz. He later was a schoolteacher in Rapperswill (1840-44), but
pursued an interest in music. He sent some of his piano pieces to Felix
Mendelssohn (1843), who recommended them for publication; having met
Franz Liszt in Basel (1845), he received his encouragement and
assistance in finding employment; later was his assistant in Weimar
(1850-56), where he became an ardent propagandist of the new German
school of composition. He then went to Wiesbaden as a piano teacher and
composer, where he married the actress Doris Genast (1837-1912). He
subsequently was director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt
(1877-82), where he also taught composition; students flocked from many
countries to study with him, including Edward MacDowell and Alexander
Ritter. As a composer, he was a prodigious fecundity, and a master of
all technical aspects of composition. He wrote 214 opus numbers that
were published, and many more that remained in manuscript. In spite of
his fame, his music fell into lamentable desuetude after his death. Any
analysis of Raff's music must confront the historical criticisms of his
eclecticism and quantity of production. On the one hand, Raff considered
himself an independent creator and thus distanced himself from Liszt
and Richard Wagner, even though during his time in Weimar he did
circumspectly adopt elements of the New German style; on the other hand,
he clearly modelled his work on various predecessors. Raff was able to
give to his music a strong sense of drive and direction, and his
orchestration was quite effective, even though his forces did not
normally exceed Ludwig van Beethoven's in size. Raff's stylistic
eclecticism is particularly evident in his themes, which tend to be
diatonic and brilliant in his faster movements, but often adopt a
sentimental salon style in slow movements. Raff's only daughter, Helene
Raff (1864-1942), became a painter, writer and pianist of note. Upon her
death, Raff's entire estate of musical manuscripts, letters and other
literary and familial documents was bequeathed to the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
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