[© www.draeseke.org]
The death of Dr Alan Krueck robbed the musical world of the pioneering modern day advocate of the music of Raff and Felix Draeseke, a man who throughout his professional life had remained in the forefront of the efforts to see Raff's oeuvre accorded a much more prominent place in the history of 19th century music. He worked tirelessly to secure performances and recordings of Raff's compositions and to deliver papers to seminars and conferences promoting interest in Raff and his music. He conducted his student ensembles in performances of the symphonies and set up, wholly at his own expense, the AK Coburg record label, which issued four CDs of Raff's piano music. During the 1970s he took a sabbatical year specifically to carry out research in Germany and Switzerland into Raff's life and music, with the intention of publishing the result of his researches as the first definitive study of the composer. Although he began work on the project and wrote some penetrating analyses of the symphonies, sadly this ambition remained unrealised, but luckily some papers have survived. In the last fifteen years of his life he took justifiable pride in seeing all this activity bear fruit in a significant upsurge in the number of concert performances of Raff's music worldwide and in the tremendous growth in recordings of his music which the development of CDs made possible. His efforts promoting Draeseke's music mirrored his tireless work on Raff's behalf and were probably even more extensive. The enthusiastic encouragement and selfless generosity with his time and researches which he showered on the later generation of Raff enthusiasts who emerged in the late 1990s to take his work forward was rewarded by the universal affection and esteem in which they held him as the doyen of Raff advocates.
Alan Krueck was born on 15 November 1939 in Rochester, NY, received his BA from nearby Syracuse University in 1961 and, five years later, a Doctorate in Musicology from the University of Zürich in Switzerland. He also held a Masters in German Language and Literature. Shortly after his return to the USA, he joined the faculty of California University of Pennsylvania, where he remained for the rest of his career as a Professor in the Departments of Music and Modern Languages, retiring in 2004. He died suddenly on 24 June 2010.
The Alan Krueck Archive includes most of Dr Krueck's surviving articles, papers and usable research documents concerning Raff and his music. The analyses of most of Raff's symphonies which he prepared for his unpublished book are very significant additions to the body of Raff scholarship. Also included are some fascinating papers which he read at musicological conferences, his reviews of concerts featuring music by Raff and his CD insert notes for Raff recordings. Each paper is available separately as a PDF file for reading online, and downloadable for printing and offline use.
Introduction (194kb) - Alan Krueck's proposed definitive study of Raff's music. View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony in E minor WoO.18 (Lost) (46kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.1 An das Vaterland Op.96 (82kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.2 Op.140 (49kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.4 Op.167 (49kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.6 Op.189 (65kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.7 In den Alpen Op.203 (167kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Die Jahreszeiten Symphony Cycle (Nos.8-11) (41kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.8 Frühlingsklänge Op.205 (60kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.10 Zur Herbstzeit (fragment) Op.213 (155kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.11 Der Winter Op.214 (160kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Introduction (107kb) - Alan Krueck's biographical introduction, common to all CD booklets (146kb) View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Piano Suite in A minor Op.69 (60kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Piano Suite in C major Op.711 (142kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Piano Suite in E minor Op.72 (71kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Piano Suite in G major Op.162 (150kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Researching Raff: Considerations and Revelations (61kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Identity Crisis or The Vienna Preissymphonie competition of 1862 (68kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Maledictory Musicology (46kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
A tale of two Lenores or is it three? (61kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.3 Im Walde in Hagen, Germany (65kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)
Symphony No.10 Zur Herbstzeit in Scottsdale, AZ, USA (101kb) - View/download.
(opens in a new window)