Raff, JOACHIM

Raff, JOACHIM, musical composer, was born at Lachen on Lake Zurich on 27th May 1822. He began life as a schoolmaster, but, encouraged by Mendelssohn, he devoted himself to music. From 1850 to 1856 he lived near Liszt in Weimar, then taught music at Wiesbaden until 1877; and from that year until his death, on 24th June 1882, he was director of the musical conservatory at Frankfurt-on-Main. From the time he turned to music down to the end of his life Raff poured forth an incessant stream of musical productions, more than 200 in all. His works include many classes of composition, as symphonies, overtures, concertos for violin, cello, and piano, operas, quartetts, a great variety of pieces for piano and violin, and for piano alone. The symphonies Lenore and Im Wald are reputed his best works. He wrote with considerable poetic charm, much fluency, and great technical mastery, but undoubtedly wrote too much: he is often diffuse, and over-elaborates insignificant themes. In Die Wagnerfrage (1852) and numerous papers contributed to the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik he advocated the works and aims of the new German musical school.