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Romantic Swiss

RAFF, Joachim

Joachim Raff

Born in Lachen, Switzerland, 27 May 1822
Died in Frankfurt, Germany, 24 June 1882

[PRONUNCIATION]

  • Joachim Raff was a Swiss-German Romantic composer and educator who was popular during his own lifetime but has since been overlooked by his 18th-century German contemporaries.
  • As a teenager, Raff taught himself piano, violin, and composition. In 1850, he became an assistant to Liszt for several years and embraced the new German school of composing. In 1877, he became the director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, a post he held until his death in 1882.
  • As a composer, Raff was quite prolific and wrote in nearly every musical genre of the time. His catalog of over 400 works includes symphonies, concerti for various instruments, operas, choral and chamber music, Lieder, and piano works.1

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Sources

  1. T. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Joachim Raff,” Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), accessed January 3, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joachim-Raff.

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