Raff and the rise of tourism

Schwyzer Heft 113 pursues various objectives: The centerpiece is the annotated edition of ten letters containing Joseph Joachim Raff's reports from two trips to Switzerland (1867) and the southern German Alps (1873). This enabled the Schwyzer Hefte to cooperate with the Raff Society - on the occasion of the 200th birthday of its namesake - without having to forego a minimum of local color. At the same time, this has provided a platform for the publication of a previously unknown part of Raff's extensive correspondence, which is kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. In addition, the two editors and the editor take the opportunity to draw attention to those works by Raff which have Swiss in their title.

In all of this, it remains unclear whether the composer did not rather use such geographical titles to facilitate the saleability of his works by knowing how to profit from his rather coincidental birthplace in times of increasing tourism in Switzerland. An overview of the development of the Alpine country of Switzerland as a tourist destination by the historian Joseph Jung, intended as a contextualization, turns out to be the focal point of the entire publication, to which Raff, with his reference to Switzerland in letters and compositions, is no more than a case study, albeit a particularly complex one.

Although this richly illustrated and informative volume - more than just a "booklet" - would have deserved critical editing, it represents a further milestone in the development of research into Joachim Raff, the composer so important for the understanding of 19th century music.

Severin Kolb, Franziska Gallusser, Lion Gallusser, Joseph Jung, Heinrich Aerni: Unterwegs mit Joachim Raff im Alpenraum, Schwyzer Heft Vol. 113, 137 p., Fr. 25.00, Kulturkommission Kanton Schwyz, 2022, ISBN 978-3-909102-75-4