Despite his fame in the second half of the 19th. century, Raff's reputation suffered such a calamitous collapse that little of his music was played in the next hundred years, and most of that was in the late 1990s. Paralleling and reinforcing this exclusion from performance went an academic disinterest which bordered on the Stalinist. Raff, one of the most celebrated composers of the 1860s-80s, was in danger of becoming a non-person to the musicologists of a hundred years later. Although happily this is no longer the case, there remains a dearth of serious academic and musicological studies of Raff in general and of his major works in particular.
To begin remedying this deficiency, published here are articles and other documents by respected authors, all of them authorities on Raff and his music. Many are available in both English and German versions, in both PDF and HTML format. Clicking the appropriate link will open the essay in a new window in your web browser. If you are unsure about PDF files, see these notes.
Forewords for Musikproduktion Höflich
The German specialist publishing house Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich has commissioned a series of scholarly and stimulating essays as prefaces for their facsimile reprints of study scores of Raff orchestral works. They currently offer the scores to Raff's Symphonies No.1 An das Vaterland, No.3 Im Walde, No.4, No.5 Lenore, No.7 In den Alpen, No.8 Frühlingsklänge, No.9 Im Sommer, No.10 Zur Herbstzeit and No.11 Der Winter, together with the Piano Concerto, Macbeth and Singer's orchestration of the Cavatine. The prefaces are published in English and German.
Forewords for Edition Nordstern by Volker Tosta, Prof. Matthias Wiegandt and Dr. Avrohom Leichlting
The publishing house of Edition Nordstern has built up an unrivalled repution for its new critical editions of Raff scores. Each issue is prefaced by a substantial foreword, impeccibly researched and entertainly written by series editor Volker Tosta or by Raff doyen Prof. Matthias Wiegandt. These important contributions to Raff scholarship are reprinted with Edition Nordstern's kind permission. Most are available in both English and German versions in both PDF and HTML format:
Symphony No.2 op.140
Violin Concerto No.1 op.161
Elegie WoO.41
The Tempest WoO.41
Fantasie-Sonate op.168
Piano arrangement of J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites WoO.31
Instrumentation of Liszt's sketches for the Prometheus Overture RV 539
Historical Analysis
In his day, Raff was a very considerable figure and contemporary music periodicals featured extensive reviews and analysis of his music. Although obviously lacking the objectivity and perspective afforded by the intervening 125 years, they give a good indication of his contemporaries' regard for Raff's music:
Analysis of Symphonies Nos.3, 5 and 11 Book on famous Symphonies
Analysis of La Fileuse op.157 No.2
English premiere of Welt-Ende Newspaper report
Review of four new Raff works English musical periodical
Downloadable Book: "Catalogue of music composed by Joachim Raff"
This new definitive catalogue of Raff's compositions has been published by the Joachim Raff Society. It is now available as a free download in convenient PDF format for trouble-free viewing and printing.
The exciting 151-page book has been compiled by Mark Thomas from the only extant catalogue of Raff’s works – the Chronologisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Joachim Raffs published in 1888. Combining the original's movement-by-movement thoroughness with up to date information, Raff's 300+ original compositions, arrangements and transcriptions are catalogued in a comprehensive, clear and attractive manner, making it a reference work which is a pleasure to use.
Paper: "Maledictory Musicology or, The Jettisoning of Scholarship for the Sake of Indulging in the Supercilious and Mean-Spirited on Behalf of Authoritative Posturing in Defamation of a Composer" by Dr Alan Krueck
In this entertainingly waspish but erudite paper delivered in October 2006, Raff maven Dr Alan Krueck debunks the gratuitous inaccuracies about Raff which he found in the concert notes for a performance of a Liszt Piano Concerto. He regards such an approach as all too typical of the musicological establishment.
If you have Acrobat Reader installed you can read Dr Krueck's paper in Adobe Acrobat format (krueck.pdf - 131KB). Also available in plain-text HTML format (18KB).
Paper: "A tale of two Lenores - or is it three?" by Dr Alan Krueck
Pioneering Raff scholar Dr Alan Krueck's fascinating paper recounts the odd situation in which both Raff and his younger contemporary August Klughardt appear to have simultaneously written "Lenore" symphonies. Based upon newly discovered correspondence between the two men, it is the source from which this web site's page on Klughardt is drawn.
If you have Acrobat Reader installed you can read Dr Krueck's paper in Adobe Acrobat format (3lenores.pdf - 80KB). Also available in plain-text HTML format (31KB).
Article: "Joachim Raff: The Piano Trios" by Larius J Ussi
The Cobbett Association is dedicated to the preservation, dissemination, performance, publication and recording of rare and neglected chamber music of merit; chamber music which is no longer in the standard repertoire. It publishes The Chamber Music Journal in which Larius J Ussi's comprehensive survey of Raff's piano trios appeared in 2006. The Cobbett Association's kind permission to make it available here here is gratefully acknowledged.
The article is available in Adobe Acrobat format (cobbett.pdf - 265KB).
Recording booklet notes: "Raff's Six Morceaux op.85 & Ten Sonatilles op.99"
Pianist Eric Le Van has kindly provided a copy of his exemplary essay written for the booklet accompanying Tudor's CD (Tudor 7109 - review) on which he and violinist Michaela Paetsch Neftel play Raff's Six Morceaux op.85 and give the recording premiere of the Ten Sonatilles op.99.
If you have Acrobat Reader installed you can read the booklet notes in Adobe Acrobat format (levan.pdf - 62KB). Also available in plain-text HTML format (24KB).
Article: "The symphonist Joachim Raff"
This fascinating article "The symphonist Joachim Raff" (© Die Tonkunst 2006) by musicologist Dr Markus Gärtner appears in the German language online music magazine Die Tonkunst. The subtitle: "With a note on the 'history' of post-modernism", gives hints at its perceptive argument that Raff was the unrecognised precursor of what was to become the post-modernist movement in music.
The article is also available from Die Tonkunst in Adobe Acrobat format (in German, © Die Tonkunst 2006).
More...
Further detailed analysis of Raff's music can be found in Matthias Wiegandt's book "Forgotten Symphonists", Carol Bevier's dissertation on Raff's programme symphonies and Molly Johnson's monograph on the "Maria Stuart" song cycle - details of all in the Books section.
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