Unsung Composers

A shameless piece of self-promotion, I'll admit, but for those of you interested in Raff here are two new books which may be of interest. Available now from www.raff.org/shop (http://www.raff.org/shop):
A CATALOGUE OF THE MUSIC OF JOACHIM RAFF - 314 pages (Paperback: ISBN: 978-1-4478-7433-1)
Since it was published in 1888, Albert Schäfer's Chronologisch-Systematisches Verzeichnis der Werke Joachim Raff's has been the only catalogue of Raff's music. Its pages feature comprehensive entries for each of his almost 300 compositions, listed in Opus number order. This new book, which includes a full facsimile reprint of the original volume, make's Schäfer's work both more accessible and up to date by adding a completely new English catalogue, based on the original but compiled with the benefit of more recent research. Significant errors and many major omissions in Schäfer's book have been corrected. The new catalogue lists works by genre of composition to give an easier overview of Raff's compositional activity, it includes entries for 15 works missing from Schäfer, it uses the WoO numbers now allocated to the 71 compositions left by Raff without Opus numbers and surveys all his known unrealised projects. It is complemented by a short biography of Raff, an article about Schäfer and his Verzeichnis, eight pages of illustrations and a full index. Full details here (http://www.raff.org/shop/support/catalog_advt.htm). 

Coming soon, hopefully early in the New Year, is the long-awaited biography of Raff:
Helene Raff: JOACHIM RAFF: PORTRAIT OF A LIFE Translated by Alan Howe - approx. 290 pages (Paperback)
The only biography of Joachim Raff, written by his daughter Helene and published in Germany in 1925, will soon be available in English for the first time in another authoritative and extremely readable translation by Alan Howe. This lively account is supplemented by extensive illustrations, most of which are new to this edition, together with painstakingly researched footnotes which amplify all aspects of the book but particularly fill out the details of those of Raff's compositions which are only sketchily covered by the author. There is a modern, newly-compiled list of all Raff's compositions and, unlike the original, a comprehensive index. This book is the definitive source for Raff's fascinating life and career and is a must buy for anyone interested in him.

Mark and Alan - both these publications are surely set to become essential and standard reference, and obviously represent an enormous amount of dedicated hard work in Raff's cause.

Congratulations on bringing these complementary projects to fruition!

;D

Shameless indeed, Mark  ;)
Seriously, though, for anyone interested in Raff, Liszt, Wagner and von Bülow in particular, the biography should prove an interesting read.
Now there's me being shameless...

Quote from: Alan Howe on Monday 21 November 2011, 10:08
Shameless indeed, Mark  ;)
Seriously, though, for anyone interested in Raff, Liszt, Wagner and von Bülow in particular, the biography should prove an interesting read.
Now there's me being shameless...

Shame is much over-rated IMHO!  If you've got it, flaunt it, I say! ;)

Oh well, if I can put the shame to one side then I'll add that the price of the Catalogue is only a niggardly £13 (plus p&p)!  ;)

Well flaunted, Mark!  ;)

That's better  ;D

I don't want to sound greedy....but will these (or at least the works catalog) be eventually available at public and college libraries (in the US) so I can perhaps get it through Inter-Library-Loan? Or are these going to be limited to distribution through Raff.org (and thus not be 'on the radar' as it were)?

I would happily sell copies to any library which wanted them, of course, that's one of the reason why both books are ISBN. Within a few months (yes, it takes that long apparently) you should be able to  buy the Catalogue through Amazon in the US and the UK and eventually, and I do mean eventually, a copy should be held in the major UK and US libraries of record: Library of Congress, British Library etc., but that could take years I'm told. For now, though, if you want copies of the Catalogue, or the biography which follows it, you should buy them from raff.org or wait a few months and buy them through Amazon.

Quote from: Mark Thomas on Monday 21 November 2011, 10:50the price of the Catalogue is only a niggardly £13 (plus p&p)

Quote from: TerraEpon on Monday 21 November 2011, 20:38I can perhaps get it through Inter-Library-Loan?

Given the generally exorbitant price of new academic books in the field of musicology - to be honest, if you're interested in Raff, need a newly-researched, typed, edited, proof-read, printed and bound complete catalogue of his works and wish to enjoy the fruits of (no doubt) a hell of a lot of hard labour, this has to be the bargain of the century!

:o

Oh no, it's a great price compared to some others -- the Saint-Saens thematic catalog /volume 1/ costs almost $100. Still it's a lot to drop on something when the majority of it is sitting on my hard drive as a PDF (I imagine that's not up for DL any more?).

I honestly don't know how things work, and it was a fleeting hope, as it were, because as lovely as they are, it's not something that'd find much use after the initial burst, as it were.

QuoteI imagine that's not up for DL any more?

No, for obvious reasons I've withdrawn the first edition which was available as a free PDF download. That said, there really is no comparison between the two as you can easily see - there are sample pages available at the link I gave in my first post. If all you want is a Raff work list then that's freely available at raff.org in three different iterations: by date, by genre and by opus/WoO number.

Leaves from Life's Tree is full of all sorts of unexpected riches. And so sensitively translated. Looking forward to Helene's biography of her father. Do update the topic when it possible to order (or pre-order).

I'm sure I speak for Alan too when I say that comments like this make the effort really worthwhile. Thanks so much. I'm sure that you'll find Helene's bio of papa an even more rewarding read. I'm currently compiling the index (something Leaves from Life's Tree lacked), a desperately tedious job, but when that's done it'll be published quite quickly. I'm aiming for late January or February and I'll announce it here, of course.

Your comments, Kit, are very gratifying, Thank you.

Some of you wanted to know when we had published the long-awaited biography of Raff and I'm delighted to say that we can part you from your cash now:


The only biography of Joachim Raff, originally published in Germany in 1925, is available in English for the first time in another authoritative and extremely readable translation by Alan Howe. Helene Raff's distinctively brisk voice, unsentimental in her judgement of her father, chronicles Raff's professional and family life and his relationships with his great contemporaries such as Liszt, Wagner and Brahms. She also describes the circumstances of the creation of most of his major compositions. This lively account is supplemented by extensive illustrations, most of which are new to this edition, together with painstakingly researched footnotes which amplify all aspects of the book and particularly Raff's compositions. There is a modern, newly-compiled list of all Raff's compositions and, unlike the original, a comprehensive index. This book is the definitive source for Raff's fascinating life and career and is a must buy for anyone interested in Raff.

To buy, and to see how you can save 20% on the price, go here (http://www.raff.org/shop).

Yippee!! Order placed, and within a few days I shall set up a perching stool behind the letterbox.

That I enjoyed 'Leaves from Life's Tree' so much, and hugely admired the real scholarship that had so clearly gone into it, is, I suppose, a fact about me and of no ultimate concern to the rest of the world. What is far more worth saying is that the book seemed to me a first rate contribution to our knowledge of Raff's family circumstances, his nature and character, the environment in which he lived and worked, and of utmost importance to our understanding of German history up until the Great War. So the new book has some high standards to meet!

Incidentally, Mark, too late now - but maybe you should have 'tendered' for expressions of interest on this Forum for the work of compiling an Index? It can be an irksome task (though it depends on the text in question), but strangely it is less irksome and in fact can be immensely rewarding to do the work on a text of which you yourself are not the author or editor. Provided the text 'grabs' you, indexing can be real fun and a great learning exercise. Sure, indexing a scholarly work on 9th Century Northumbrian chant would be equivalent to me of being a member of a jury on an immensely complex fraud trial that lasted a few months, but doing so on a well translated Raff biography would be....well, great!

Had I but known, Peter!

Now, of course, I worry that the index (all 12 double-column pages of it) may not be up to your high standard. As you imply, the difficulty for me was that I'd already read Alan's text three times during the layout and proof-reading stages and, in any case, was broadly familiar with it from earlier draft translations which others have done. What I should have done was index it as I was proof reading the final layout, but you learn these things only afterwards.

Anyway, I'm sure that you'll enjoy the book - it's well up to Helene Raff's standard and (I'll not spare his blushes) Alan's translation is superb.

Congratulations, Mark & Alan, on this splendid book production. I've only just started reading it but I've enjoyed it very much so far. I particularly like the way it is set out with a summary of each chapter at the start.
  I do hope you have sent review copies to the various music magazines such as the Musical Times, The Gramophone and BBC music Magazine. I don't know if it still applies, but years ago it used to be a legal requirement to submit a copy of any publication in the UK to the British Museum Library which I believe is now called the British Library. I know this because an uncle of mine landed up in prison for a while around 80 odd years ago when he published a book and failed to comply with that requirement.

Very kind, John.
The matter of sending out review copies is, as they say, in hand...

QuoteI particularly like the way it is set out with a summary of each chapter at the start.

Thanks John. In fairness, that's a feature of the original 1925 book which we retained. But then it didn't have an index, which the new edition has, of course.