Joseph Joachim Raff (May 27, 1822 - June 24 or June 25, 1882) was a composer, teacher and pianist. May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... 1822 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... In education, teachers are those who teach students or pupils, often a course of study, lesson plan, or a practical skill, including learning and thinking skills. ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ...

Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. He was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster. He sent some of his piano compositions to Felix Mendelssohn who recommended them to Breitkopf and Härtel for publication. They were published in 1844 and received a favourable review in Robert Schumann's journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which prompted Raff to go to Zürich and take up composition full time. Lachen is a municipality on Lake Zurich in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. ... Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the age of thirty Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known simply as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was a German composer of the early Romantic period. ... Breitkopf & Härtel is the worlds oldest music publishing house. ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ... Location within Switzerland â–¶(?) (German pronunciation IPA: ; in English often Zurich, without the umlaut) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...

In 1845, Raff walked to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play the piano. After a period in Stuttgart where he became friends with the conductor Hans von Bülow, he worked as Liszt's assistant at Weimar from 1850 to 1853. During this time he helped the Hungarian in the orchestration of several of his works, claiming to have had a particularly big part in orchestrating the symphonic poem Tasso. In 1851, Raff's opera König Alfred was staged in Weimar, and five years later he moved to Wiesbaden where he largely devoted himself to composition. From 1877 he was a teacher at, and administrator of, the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. There he employed Clara Schumann and a number of other women as teachers, and established a class specifically for female composers (this was at a time when women composers were not taken very seriously). His pupils there included Edward MacDowell and Alexander Ritter. He died in Frankfurt am Main. Location within Switzerland Basel (English traditionally: Basle , German: Basel , French Bâle , Italian Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Stuttgart, a city located in southern Germany, is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg with a population of approximately 590,000 as of September 2005 in the city and around 3 million in the metropolitan area. ... Hans von Bülow. ... See also Weimar Republic. ... For the use of the term orchestration in computer science, see orchestration (computers) Orchestration or arrangement is the study and practice of arranging music for an orchestra or musical ensemble. ... A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, in one movement in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Wiesbaden is a city in central Germany. ... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ... Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896), wife of composer Robert Schumann, was one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era as well as a composer. ... Edward and Marian MacDowell. ... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ...

Raff was very prolific, and by the end of his life was one of the best known German composers, though his work is largely forgotten today (the only one of his pieces received anything like regular performance today is a cavatina for violin and piano, sometimes played as an encore). He drew influence from a variety of sources - his eleven symphonies, for example, combine the Classical symphonic form, with the Romantic penchant for program music and contrapuntal orchestral writing which harks back to the Baroque. Most of these symphonies carry descriptive titles including In the Forest (number three), Lenore (No. 5) and To the Fatherland (No. 1), a very large-scale work lasting around seventy minutes. His last four symphonies make up a quartet of works based on the four seasons. A symphony is an extended piece of music usually for orchestra and comprising several movements. ... The Classical period in Western music occurred from about 1730 and 1820, but there was considerable overlap at both ends with preceding and following periods, as is true for all musical eras. ... The era of Romantic music is defined as the period of European classical music that runs roughly from the early 1800s to the first decade of the 20th century, as well as music written according to the norms and styles of that period. ... Program music is music intended to musically represent, or accompany, an extra-musical theme, contrasting with absolute music. ... Counterpoint is a musical technique involving the simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines. ... Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 to 1750 (see Dates of classical music eras for a discussion of the problems inherent in defining the beginning and end points). ...

The Lenore symphony, famous in its time, was inspired by a ballad by Gottfried Bürger (1747 – 1794) that also inspired works by several other composers, including Maria von Paradis (1789), Henri Duparc, Franz Liszt (late 1850s, mentioned by Alan Walker in his Liszt biography vol. 2), for example. // Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Henri Duparc (January 21, 1848 – February 12, 1933) was a French composer of the late Romantic period. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ...

Raff also composed in most other genres, including concertos, opera, chamber music and works for solo piano. His chamber works include two piano sonatas, five violin sonatas, a cello sonata, a piano quintet, two piano quartets, a string sextet and four piano trios. Many of these works are now commercially recorded. He also wrote numerous suites, some for smaller groups (there are suites for piano solo and suites for string quartet), some for orchestra and one for piano and orchestra. In classical music, the word concerto (pl. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. ... A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. ... A violin sonata is a musical composition for solo violin, often (but not always) accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque. ... A cello sonata usually denotes a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. ... A piano quintet is a chamber musical ensemble made up of one piano and four other instruments, or the name of a piece written for such a group. ... A piano quartet is a musical ensemble consisting of a piano and three other instruments, or a piece written for such a group. ... In classical music, a string sextet is a composition written for six string instruments, or a group of six musicians who perform such a composition. ... A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, almost always a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. ...

External links

• Website of the Joachim Raff Society
• String Quartet in D, Op. 192 No. 2 (Die Schöne Müllerin) at the NoteWorthy Composer Scriptorium