Joseph Joachim Raff, was the son of an organist and teacher, Franz
Joseph Raff, who early in 1822 left the little Würtemberg city of
Weisenstetter in the Horb district of the Black Forest to settle in
Lachen on the lake of Zurich in the canton Schwyz. Here on May 27 of the
same year the boy was born. In his early childhood he displayed that
mental ability which does not always fulfill its promise in years of
maturity. He was able to translate Homer at the age of seven and
generally preferred books to rude outdoor sports. He displayed musical
tendencies, too, learning to play the organ and to sing in the choir;
but no special attention was given to his musical training, probably
because his facility in this art was regarded as only an evidence of his
general activity of mind. He was first put to school at the Würtemberg
Institute, and after a thorough preparation there, was sent to the
Schwyz Jesuit Lyceum. He was graduated with distinction, carrying off
prizes in Latin and mathematics, but his means were not sufficient to
enable him to take a university course. He obtained the post of tutor of
Latin at St. Gallen, where he remained a short time, afterward going as
a teacher to Rapperswyl. He was at this time hardly twenty years of age.
He now began his study of music, for which his fondness had been
growing. He was unable to afford a teacher, but he diligently practised
at the piano and made many earnest attempts at composition.
The patron saint of musical Germany in 1842 was Mendelssohn and in
August of that year he set off on one of his tours in Switzerland. No
date is recorded, but we may be sure that Raff seized upon this visit as
his opportunity. Mendelssohn, with his customary promptness in
recognizing and assisting aspirants, gave the young man a warm letter of
recommendation to the great publishing house of Breitkopf & Härtel. So
effective were the master’s words that Raff’s first work was published
in January, 1843. Thenceforward the current of his life could not be
checked, and despite the opposition of his parents, he devoted his
future to music. No critical notice of Raff’s opus 1 has been found, but
opus 2 (“Trois Pièces Caracteristique” for piano) is mentioned with
kindness in Schumann’s journal, the _Neue Zeitschrift für Musik_, of
Aug. 5, 1844. The critic found in the composition “something which
points to a future for the composer.” One readily discerns here the keen
insight of the greatest of all music critics, Schumann himself.
Favorable comments were made on the young composer’s works numbered opus
2 to 6 in the _Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung_ of Aug. 21 in the same
year, and we may readily understand that with such encouragements Raff
bent his whole mind to the production of music.
In 1845 the wizard Liszt appeared in Switzerland. The great pianist was
not long in discovering Raff’s gifts and was equally quick to see that
the young man was struggling against privations that would have
overwhelmed a weaker nature. Liszt invited Raff to accompany him on a
concert tour, and thus laid the foundations of the beginner’s
reputation. Together they travelled in the principal German cities, the
tour ending at Cologne. Thence Liszt returned to Paris, but Raff
remained. This stay in Cologne was a happy one, for it led to a personal
acquaintance with Mendelssohn. The famous master, who had given the
young composer his first help, now displayed fresh interest in him and
made him a proposition to go to Leipsic and continue his studies under
Mendelssohn’s own guidance. Such an offer was not to be refused, but the
fates were not propitious. Just as Raff was making his preparations to
go to Leipsic in the fall of 1847 Mendelssohn’s untimely death put an
end to his hopes. He had not been idle while in Cologne, however, for he
had studied composition with great earnestness, and had sent to the
_Cäcilia_, published in Berlin by the noted contrapuntist, Siegfried
Dehn, many contributions displaying wide knowledge of musical science.
Later he published “Die Wagnerfrage” (“The Wagner Question”), a pamphlet
which attracted much attention, as did all discussions of the works of
the Bayreuth genius.
Raff now became anxious to make a permanent home for himself in one of
the larger German cities. He appealed once more to Liszt, who gave him a
letter of introduction to Mechetti, at that time a prominent publisher
of Vienna. It seemed as if ill luck relentlessly pursued Raff, for while
he was actually on the way to visit Mechetti, the latter died. In spite
of such obstacles to his advancement the composer continued his labors
with undaunted spirit. He returned to his old home at Würtemberg and
resumed his studies. For a short time he taught and studied at
Stuttgart, seeking in the latter city to fill the gaps in his early
training. That his ambition was unconquered is well proved by the fact
that in Stuttgart he wrote his first large work, an opera in four acts
entitled “King Alfred.” In Stuttgart, too, he was in some measure
recompensed for his many trials and adversities by making the
acquaintance of one who was destined to be his life-long friend and his
champion after death. This was Hans von Bülow, then a youth of barely
twenty, not yet the famous pupil of Liszt, but a law student who was
neglecting his studies for the pursuit of music. Von Bülow, no doubt,
perceived that to introduce to the public a new composer of merit would
add to his own success as a player, and he accordingly performed from
memory a recently finished composition of Raff’s, which he had seen for
the first time two days before. The result was a storm of applause for
both player and composer. This success cemented the friendship of the
two, and, as all who have often heard the pianist well know, Dr. von
Bülow very rarely plays a miscellaneous programme on which the name of
Raff does not appear.
It was in 1850 that the young man met Liszt again, this time in Hamburg,
and followed the magnet of attraction to Weimar. Here at last it seemed
as if Raff had found the atmosphere for which his spirit hungered.
Music, literature and art permeated the air; and the foreign artists who
came to lay their tributes of flattery before the throne of the musical
idol of the hour had smiles of approval for Raff, who basked in the
sunlight and let the essence of the new German ideas in music saturate
his soul. He went to work with renewed vigor, and inspired by the
presence of competent performers wrote his first chamber music (Quatuor
No. 1 in D minor for strings), some of his best piano suites, his
setting of Geibel’s “Traum König und Sein Lieb” (“Dream King and his
Love”), “Wachet auf” and other well known works. Raff made himself
popular and respected in the artistic circles of Weimar by his learning.
When Berlioz, who was ignorant of German, was there and a banquet was
given in his honor, Raff relieved the situation of some difficulty by
making the address to the guest in Latin, an attention which highly
delighted the Frenchman.
In the meantime Raff had found his domestic fate in Doris Genast, an
actress, grand-daughter of Goethe’s favorite actor. This young lady
having accepted an engagement in Wiesbaden, the composer followed her
thither in 1856. He speedily became the most popular music teacher in
the city, but his compositions still failed to find a ready market.
Nevertheless he employed his spare hours unceasingly in writing. In 1859
he and Fräulein Genast were married, and a daughter was the result of
their union. Previous to his marriage he composed in 1858 his second
violin sonata and the incidental music to “Bernhard von Weimar,” a drama
by Wilhelm Genast. The overture to this drama became a favorite and was
played frequently in many parts of Germany. In the summer of 1859,
however, he began the work which was to establish his fame. This was his
first symphony, “In the Fatherland.” It was ready for the publisher in
1861, when the composer was informed of the prize offered by the
“Society of the Friends of Music of the Austrian Empire” (“Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde”), for the best symphony offered in competition. Raff
sent in his new work, and in 1863 a committee consisting of Ferdinand
Hiller, Carl Reinecke, Dr. Ambros, Robert Volkmann and Vincenz Lachner
adjudged it the best of thirty-two compositions. Other large works
followed, and their success enabled him to give up teaching to devote
himself wholly to composing. No artist’s life shows more plainly than
Raff’s the result of escape from poverty’s iron control. Hitherto he had
written copiously for the drawing-room, but now he sought to produce
works wholly artistic in purpose. His retirement after the beginning of
the year 1870 was almost idyllic, being broken only by the visits of
fellow artists. It is impossible to agree with the oft-repeated
statement that his best works date from this period, for the beautiful
“Im Walde” (“In the Forest”) symphony appeared in 1869; but there is
every proof of a higher purpose in the compositions after 1870 than in
the majority of those originating earlier than that year. Perhaps, too,
Raff’s lack of business ability may be accepted as an evidence of his
artistic sincerity. For his first, second and fourth symphonies he
received no cash payment; for the third (“Im Walde”) he got sixty
thalers, the same amount being paid him again, when the work was sold to
a French publisher. Thereafter, however, he seems to have acquired
courage enough to ask fair prices for his works.
In 1877 Raff left Wiesbaden to become director of the new Conservatory
of Music at Frankfort. He taught composition himself, arranged the
library, and conducted the institution upon such a broad-minded plan
that its success was assured from the beginning. He continued his labors
in composition, his symphonies after the seventh, having been written at
Frankfort together with other important works. Ignorant of the fact that
a mortal disease had fastened upon him he worked with undiminished zeal
till 1882, when on the night of June 24, heart disease ended his career.
[Illustration:
Fac-simile autograph letter from Raff to a personal friend.
]
Raff’s principal works are the following: operas—“King Alfred,” Weimar,
1850; “Dame Kobold,” (comic) Weimar, 1870; “Benedetto Marcello,”
(lyric), not performed; “Samson” (opera seria), not performed.
For voices and orchestra—“Wachet Auf” (“Be on Guard”), opus 80;
“Deutschland’s Auferstehung” (“Germany’s Resurrection”), opus 100;
festival cantata for the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Leipsic;
“De Profundis” (Psalm CXXX.) for eight voices and orchestra, opus 141;
and “Morgenlied” (“Morning Song”), for mixed chorus and orchestra, opus
171.
For orchestra: symphonies—“In the Fatherland,” opus 96; No. 2, in C,
opus 140; No. 3, “Im Walde,” in F, opus 153; No. 4, in G minor, opus
167; No. 5, “Lenore,” in E, opus 177; No. 6, in D minor, opus 189; No.
7, “In den Alpen,” B flat, opus 201; No. 8, “Frühlingsklänge,” (“Sounds
of Spring”) in A, opus 205; No. 9, “Im Sommer” (“In the Summer”) in E
minor, opus 208; No. 10, “Im Herbstzeit” (“In Autumn”), F minor, opus
213; No. 11, “Der Winter,” A minor, opus 214; four suites in C, F, E
minor and B flat; and nine overtures, including those to “Romeo and
Juliet,” “Othello,” “Macbeth” and the “Tempest.”
For piano with orchestra—“Ode to Spring,” opus 76; concerto in C minor,
opus 185; and suite in E flat, opus 200.
For violin with orchestra—concerto No. 1 in B minor, opus 161; concerto
No. 2, in A minor, opus 206.
In addition to these principal works there is a great mass of chamber
music, piano compositions, songs and ’cello pieces.
It may, perhaps, be unfortunate for Raff’s fame that his dramatic works
are unknown in this country, though it is indisputable that none of them
has achieved high repute in German. It is probable, although we in
America know far less about the music of this gifted man than the
Germans do, the estimate of his abilities generally accepted on this
side of the Atlantic is a wise one. He is regarded as a composer who,
possessing exceptional fecundity of melodic invention and rare mastery
of orchestral tone-color, sought to impose upon music a definiteness of
expression somewhat beyond its power. This eagerness to delineate in
detail a chain of feelings or impressions led Raff into diffuseness of
style and to frequent sacrifices of those formal elaborations which are
regarded as essential to the construction of artistic music. He has been
generally thought to lack self-criticism and a want of restraint
resulting therefrom; but it has always seemed to the present writer that
Raff’s errors were not in the direction of criticism, but of fundamental
belief. In other words he let the beautiful vision of a genus of
pictorial programme music which is to be more expressive than speech run
away with his reason. The preface to his “In the Fatherland” symphony
clearly exhibits his idea of the possibilities of music.
Now it is neither necessary nor expedient to repeat here any of the
familiar discussion as to the expressive power of music. The most
serious thinkers about the art, even when they disagree in details, are
generally of the opinion that music can express only the broader
emotions, and requires text to make clear the cause of the feelings. We
are able to get great pleasure, and at times genuine emotional
exaltation from the music of Raff provided we are willing to approach it
in the only fair spirit in which programme music can be approached—that
of willingness to accept the composer’s premises. The first movement of
the “Fatherland” symphony has strength and aspiration, and we have only
to accept Raff’s explanation that he is singing of Germany to enter into
the heart of his composition. In the same way we are obliged to approach
the “Lenore,” the “Im Walde” and his other symphonies. The grisly story
of Burger’s “Lenore” is told in detail in the finale of the symphony,
but in order to follow the music we need the poem. Having that, we
perceive the aptness and peculiar fitness of the composer’s rhythmic and
melodic fancies. Nothing could have a more stimulating effect upon the
imagination—once the key to the secret is possessed—than the inexorable
persistence of the groups of a quaver and two semi-quavers by which the
infernal flight of the lovers is indicated. If perchance we find an
instrumental representation of a gallop not new (it having been invented
by Claudio Monteverde in the beginning of the seventeenth century) we
can at any rate get all the effect designed by Raff in his woodwind
shrieks of the nightbirds and his trombone hymn for the dead.
[Illustration:
Fac-simile autograph manuscript of an “Album Leaf” by Raff.
]
He has achieved a greater fidelity of feeling and a subtler realism of
tones, however, in his “Im Walde,” which is generally looked upon as his
masterpiece. The first movement is intended to bring to the hearer’s
mind the woods in the sunlit beauty of noon. The second reveals them to
us in the suggestive shadow of twilight. In the third movement the
composer entertains us with an airy and delicate dance of Dryads, a
woodland scherzo in deed and in truth. In the fourth and last movement
we have a musical embodiment of the familiar German legend of the Wild
Huntsman. A gentle fugal thought pictures the repose of the woods.
Suddenly the rhythm of the galloping hunt is heard, as it were, in the
distance. Nearer and nearer it comes, till the whole orchestra thunders
with its riotous fury. It dies away in the distance, returns and dies
away again. Then comes the glory of sunrise. This symphony makes less
demands in the way of preparation than many of Raff’s other works. The
single suggestion that he is painting the forest and that there is a
wild hunt is all that the imagination needs to give it complete
enjoyment of this work. Freedom of form is a natural result of the kind
of composition in which Raff excelled and his ability to write quickly
and with little effort prevented his feeling the necessity of working
out his compositions with the care and science of the classical school.
One gets much less intellectual satisfaction, therefore, out of Raff’s
work than out of Schumann’s, who was his precursor, and still less than
out of Mozart’s. But the ear and the imagination are delighted by the
clear intelligibility of his melodic ideas, their unfailing poetic
sentiment and musical grace. It is these qualities of his themes,
together with the splendid colors in which his orchestral palette is so
rich, that have given to his symphonic works their wide popularity, and
have made the name of Raff recognized as that of one of the really
gifted followers of the romantic school founded by Schumann and
Schubert. In the general outline his symphonies follow the laws of the
earlier masters, notably in the distribution of the movements. His
separate movements, however, are not always built according to the old
rules, his finales being notably free and irregular. It can only be
said, then, in concluding this brief estimate of his symphonic writing,
that his works in the large orchestral form are admirable examples of
that class of modern composition in which structural skill and
scientific development are sacrificed to warmth of sentiment and
opulence of color. In a word, they belong to what may be called the
impressionist school of music.
Lest it be supposed that Raff was deficient in musical learning, let us
note that his chamber music, always melodious and graceful, frequently
displays profound mastery of the resources of his art. His sextet in G
minor, opus 178, deserves especial mention because it is one of his most
carefully written productions. It is written for two violins, two violas
and two ’cellos in six real parts, and every trick of canon and
imitation is introduced. One commentator enthusiastically describes it
as “a veritable triumph of counterpoint.” In his treatment of the first
subject of his “In the Fatherland” symphony, too, he writes a canon in
augmentation and double augmentation that would have delighted the eye
of Bach himself. Dr. Franz Gehring, of Vienna, in his article on Raff in
Grove’s “Dictionary of Music” calls attention to the interesting fact
that “in the pianoforte concerto in C minor (opus 185) in each movement
all the subjects are in double counterpoint with one another, yet this
is one of Raff’s freshest and most melodious works.” The composer’s
piano music is very popular, and some of it, notably the variations on
an original theme (opus 179) and most of the suites, is remarkable for
its fertility of resource as well as for the composer’s usual readiness
for the production of new melodies. His songs are equally rich in
tunefulness and many of them have attained the rare distinction of
becoming the common property of the German people.
Raff may not deserve a seat among the Titans of music. Yet his
originality, his grace of thought and his oriental gorgeousness of
utterance lift him above the level of mediocrity and stamp him as a man
possessed of rare and valuable gifts. His larger works show every
evidence of artistic earnestness, and had he been less imbued with
impressionistic ideas and more free from the burdens of poverty, he
might have attained perfection of art.
[Illustration: N. J. Henderson.]
[Illustration: