Like many composers before and since, Joseph Joachim Raff was faced with a stark choice: to fulfil an urgent desire to write music, or to make a living in order that he might survive and possibly enjoy the freedom to compose later. And, like others, he found the effort to combine the two ambitions a severe strain. If it had not been for a fortuitous event in 1845 he might have spent his days as an obscure music teacher.