In Spring 1882, Raff's incipient heart ailment manifested itself in a heart attack, but his lifelong habit of hard work made him incapable of ignoring his duties as Director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, to which he returned part time, whilst also attending a hospital. It proved impossibe to get Raff to slow down. His last months at the Conservatory were marked by a protracted dispute with its Board of Trustees, which brought with it more rather than less stress. His doctor advised Raff's wife that another heart attack was inevitable, and this time the second one proved fatal. Raff was found dead in his room on the morning of 25 June 1882. He was buried two days later.

There are two memorials to the memory of Joachim Raff - appropriately enough in his birthplace of Lachen and at his grave in Frankfurt.

The Raff memorial in Frankfurt

The bust of Raff which crowns the Frankfurt memorial

The Raff memorial in Lachen

Raff's body lies in the Frankfurt Friedhof and in 1886 a memorial was erected at his grave. In 1903 a much larger memorial was dedicated at a more prominent location in the cemetary to which Raff's remains were moved. It was designed by the sculptor Ludwig Sand in a, perhaps rather brutal, monolithic style. A large bust of Raff is placed on top of a tall centotaph, at the foot of which is a lifesize statue of a seated angel playing a lyre. The memorial was partly paid for by a public subscription which raised over 26000 Reichmarks - to which the president of the appeal committee, Raff's great friend Hans von Bülow, himself added another 10000 Reichmarks. He played a series of concerts the receipts from which he dedicated to paying for this memorial to his friend.

The 4m. tall memorial can still be found in its suitably prominent location at the junction of three avenues  in what is now the "old" section of the greatly enlarged cemetery.

Raff remained uncommemorated in the town of his birth until 1957 when a square in Lachen was named after him. Following the founding of the Swiss Joachim Raff Society, it commissioned the large modern memorial by Joseph Bisa which now stands in the centre of the little town in the square by the side of Lake Zürich and near the site of his birthplace - at which there is also a plaque. Bisa's memorial was unveiled on 29 October 1972.