Joseph Joachim Raff was born on 27 May 1822 in the small town of Lachen, on the shores of lake Zürich in Switzerland. His father, Joseph, was a native of Empfingen, in Württemberg, south west Germany. In 1811, Joseph Raff had fled south to avoid compulsory conscription into Napoleon's army. After spells as organist & music teacher in a monastery in Wettingen and also in Lucerne, he set himself up as a schoolmaster in Lachen. In time he married the daughter of the local cantonal president - Katharina Schmid. The Raff family was poor but young Joachim had a basic education from his father. The boy was later sent to the Rottenberg Gymnasium in his father’s native Württemberg to study philosophy, philology and mathematics before financial pressures on the family forced his return to Switzerland. He finished his education with two years at the Jesuit Seminary in Schwyz, where he carried off prizes in German, Latin and mathematics. When Raff left Schwyz in 1840 it was to return to Rapperswil, near Lachen, to begin work as a teacher. As a child, though, Raff had already shown great natural talent as a pianist, violinist and organist, performing at the Sunday concerts in the nearby spa of Nuolen. Having taught himself the rudiments of music, he began to compose too.

The Ten Songs for Mixed Choir were Raff's only set of secular part songs for SATB choir and were his last set of a capella songs to be published. As with most of his larger collections, the songs have no common theme and were composed over a substantial period of time, in this case between 1860 and 1874, but the set is unusual in having a common author, the Hessen priest/poet Franz Alfred Muth (1839-90). Raff's op.198 was published by Seitz of Leipzig in 1875.

He endured poverty in Zürich, working as a musician, but his great opportunity came when he learned of an appearance by his idol Liszt on 19 June 1845 in Basle, some 80 kilometres away. Determined to hear Liszt play but being unable to pay the fare to Basle, Raff walked there from Zürich through driving rain. He arrived just as the concert was about to begin to find that all the tickets were sold. Luckily Liszt’s secretary Belloni noticed the dejected, disappointed Raff and told Liszt, who decided not only that Raff should be admitted, but insisted that he should sit on the stage with him amidst a widening pool of water from his wet clothes. "I sat there like a running fountain," Raff wrote later "oblivious to everything but my good fortune in seeing and hearing Liszt".

Many of Raff’s works were premiered in Wiesbaden, sometimes with Raff himself conducting, but his world-wide fame spread until he came to be regarded as one of the foremost composers of his day - the equal of Brahms and Wagner. His skill at orchestration was prodigious and his ability as a melodist was universally praised, but he was not without his critics. Their main charge was grounded on the accusation that Raff was a Vielschreiber - someone who wrote (too) much and was too unselfcritical. He was accused of being an eclectic whose style was a synthesis of other composers’ styles rather than being his own. They felt that Raff’s natural aptitude was for character and salon pieces, rather than the symphonies, concertos and chamber music which he continued to produce. Raff could be a blunt and tactless person, who revelled in argument and enjoyed confrontation. He did little to placate his critics, however, and with growing success tended to become arrogant. "He was too proud" wrote even his daughter Helene.

Success brought official recognition in the form of six decorations and, in 1877, what for him was probably the crowning glory. Raff was appointed to a ten year term as the first director of the newly opened Hoch Conservatory in nearby Frankfurt, having been preferred over such illustrious younger candidates as Brahms and Rheinberger. The family moved to Frankfurt, where Raff spent the rest of his life. He proved to be a very able and forward looking musical administrator, quickly establishing the conservatory as one of the foremost in the country. He engaged other eminent musicians as staff of the conservatory, most notably the pianist Clara Schumann and the singer Julius Stockhausen. Once he took over in Frankfurt, his vielschreiber days in Wiesbaden were behind him. Though he never stopped composing, and some of his last works were amongst of his most ambitious, he wrote much less than before.

Source: Raff.org (https://www.raff.org/life/outline.htm).

Although originally scored for Piano, I created this Interpretation of the "Villanella" (Opus 98) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).