Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/76

64 It curiously made its appearance in a performance at Hyde Park College, London, on May 21, 1880, under the direction of L. Martin-Eiffe. A lengthened analysis of it will be found in the A. M. Zeitung for 1836, pp. 601, 617; and there is a copy in the British Museum. [ G. ]

RAFF, JOSEPH JOACHIM, born May 27, 1822, at Lachen on the Lake of Zurich. He received his early education at Wiesenstetten in Würtemberg, in the home of his parents, and then at the Jesuit Lyceum of Schwyz, where he carried off the first prizes in German, Latin, and mathematics. Want of means compelled him to give up his classical studies, and become a schoolmaster, but he stuck to music, and though unable to afford a teacher, made such progress not only with the piano and the violin, but also in composition, that Mendelssohn, to whom he sent some MSS., gave him in 1843 a recommendation to Breitkopf & Härtel. This introduction seems to have led to his appearing before the public, and to the first drops of that flood of compositions of all sorts and dimensions which since 1844 he has poured forth in an almost unintermitting stream. Of Opus 1 we have found no critical record; but op. 2 is kindly noticed by the N. Zeitschrift (Schumann's paper) for Aug. 5, 1844, the reviewer finding in it 'something which points to a future for the composer.' Encouraging notices of ops. 2 to 6 inclusive are also given in the A. M. Zeitung for the 21st of the same month. Amidst privations which would have daunted any one of less determination he worked steadily on, and at length having fallen in with Liszt, was treated by him with the kindness which has always marked his intercourse with rising or struggling talent, and was taken by him on a concert-tour. Meeting Mendelssohn for the first time at Cologne in 1846, and being afterwards invited by him to become his pupil at Leipzig he left Liszt for that purpose. Before he could carry this project into effect, however, Mendelssohn died, and Raff remained at Cologne, occupying himself inter alia in writing critiques for Dehn's Cäcilia. Later he published 'Die Wagnerfrage,' a pamphlet which excited considerable attention. Lizst's endeavours to secure him a patron in Vienna in the person of Mechetti the publisher, were frustrated by Mechetti's death while Raff was actually on the way to see him. Undismayed by these repeated obstacles he devoted himself to a severe course of study, partly at home and partly at Stuttgart, with the view to remedy the deficiencies of his early training. At Stuttgart he made the acquaintance of Bülow, who became deeply interested in him, and did him a great service by taking up his new Concertstück, for PF. and orchestra, and playing it in public.

By degrees Raff attached himself more and more closely to the new German school, and in 1850 went to Weimar to be near Liszt, who had at that time abandoned his career as a virtuoso and was settled there. Here he remodelled an opera 'König Alfred,' which he had composed in Stuttgart three years before, and it was produced at the Court Theatre, where it is still often performed. It has also been given elsewhere. Other works followed—a collection of PF. pieces called 'Frühlingsboten' in 1852, the first string quartet in 1855, and the first grand sonata for PF. and violin (E minor) in 1857. In the meantime he had engaged himself to Doris Genast, daughter of the well known actor and manager, and herself on the stage; and in 1856 he followed her to Wiesbaden, where he was soon in great request as a pianoforte teacher. In 1858 he composed his second violin-sonata, and the incidental music for 'Bernhard von Weimar,' a drama by Wilhelm Genast, the overture to which speedily became a favourite, and was much played throughout Germany. In 1859 he married. In 1863 his first symphony 'An das Vaterland' obtained the prize offered by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (out of 32 competitors), and was followed by the 2nd (in C) and the 3rd (in F, 'Im Walde') in 1869, the 4th (in G minor) in 1871, the 5th ('Lenore') in 1872, the 6th ('Gelebt, gestrebt, gelitten, gestritten, gestorben, umworben') in 1876, and the 7th ('Alpensinfonie') in 1877, the 8th ('Frühlingsklänge') in 1878, and the 9th 'Im Sommerzeit' in 1880. A 10th ('Zur Herbstzeit') was lately played at Wiesbaden. In 1870 his comic opera 'Dame Kobold' was produced at Weimar. A serious opera in 5 acts entitled 'Samson,' for which he himself wrote the libretto, has not yet been performed in public. Two cantatas, 'Wachet auf' and another written for the Festival in commemoration of the battle of Leipzig, were his first works for men's voices, and are popular with the choral societies. His arrangement of Bach's 6 violin sonatas for PF. is a work of great merit.

Detailed analyses of the first six of these Symphonies will be found in the 'Monthly Musical Record' for 1875, and from these a very good idea of the composer's style may be gathered. Remembering his struggles and hard life it is only a matter for wonder that he should have striven so earnestly and so long in a path that was not his natural walk. A glance at the nearly complete list of his works at the foot of this notice will explain our meaning. The enormous mass of 'drawing-room music' tells its own tale. Raff had to live, and having by nature a remarkable gift of melody and perhaps not much artistic refinement, he wrote what would pay. But on looking at his works in the higher branch of music—his symphonies, concertos, and chamber music one cannot but be struck by the conscientious striving towards a very high ideal. In the whole of his nine published Symphonies the slow movements, without a single exception, are of extreme melodic beauty, although weak from a symphonic point of view: the first movements are invariably worked out with surprising technical skill, the subjects appearing frequently in double counterpoint and in every kind of canon. And however modern and common his themes may appear, they have often been built up with the greatest care, note by note, to this end; showing that he does not, as is often said, put down the first thing that comes into his mind.