Joachim Raff

Joachim Raff
(b Lachen, nr Zürich, 27 May 1822; d Frankfurt, 24/5 June 1882). 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 attended the Gymnasium in Rottenburg (Württemberg), then followed the family to Schwyz, where in 1838 he enrolled in the Jesuit Gymnasium to study philology. He taught in a primary school in Rapperswil between 1840 and 1844, during which time he decided to become a musician. He became an accomplished pianist and organist, and began composing for the piano. In 1843 he sought the opinion of Mendelssohn, who praised the works and recommended their publication to Breitkopf & Härtel (they appeared as opp.2–6). Upon leaving school service, Raff received help from Franz Abt to establish himself in Zürich, where he taught the piano, gave concerts and copied music to make a living. Raff met Liszt in the summer of 1845, though his daughter Helene's account of her father's pilgrimage on foot to Liszt in Basle is probably fictional. Nevertheless, Liszt did immediately take the young composer under his protection, upon which Raff left Switzerland. Liszt helped him find employment in Cologne in a music and piano store, where he worked for two years until unguarded critical comments he made in the Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung caused him to move to Stuttgart in 1847. During the Cologne period, Raff met Mendelssohn (1846) and remained in contact with Liszt. In 1847 he was faced with the choice of working for Liszt or studying with Mendelssohn in Leipzig: Mendelssohn's death in November brought the one plan to naught, and Liszt's travels thwarted the other. In Stuttgart he met Bülow who became a lifelong friend, and began composing for larger ensembles. In 1848 he moved again, to Hamburg, where he worked for the publisher Schuberth as an arranger. While in Hamburg, Raff met Liszt and decided to follow his renewed invitation.