Christoph Schaffrath

Christoph Schaffrath (* 1709 or 1710/11 in Hohnstein near Dresden ; † February 17, 1763 or after November 5, 1763 in Berlin ) was a German composer , harpsichordist and music theorist .

Life

Nothing is known about Schaffrath's family background. Despite repeated checking of the Hohnsteiner church book, a baptism entry for Christoph Schaffrath has not yet been found. The year of birth is given in early encyclopedias 1709, according to the "Berlinische Nachrichten" of February 22, 1763 Schaffrath died in 1763 at the age of 52, which indicates a birth in the years 1710/11.

Coincidentally, on January 15, 1709, Christoph Schaffrath was born in Hohnstein's neighboring municipality of Ehrenberg (today a district of Hohnstein). He died as a "farmer alhier" in Ehrenberg in 1783, so he has nothing to do with the composer.

According to his own statements, Christoph Schaffrath had been taking harpsichord and organ lessons since he was 9 years old. His teachers are not known.

Schaffrath probably worked in Warsaw as a harpsichordist in the Polish court orchestra of the Saxon Elector and Polish King August II from 1730 . However, Schaffrath is unlikely to have obtained an official position, at least he cannot be found in the payrolls. In Warsaw he met Franz Benda , who went to Dresden after the Polish Chapel was dissolved in the spring of 1733. Schaffrath himself found, whether before or after the dissolution of the Polish chapel is not known, for some time employment as a harpsichordist and court composer in the chapel of the Lithuanian Prince Paweł Karol Sanguszko (1680–1750), whose main seat was Saslav in today's Ukraine .

Schaffrath was in Dresden by the end of May 1733 at the latest and applied for the post of organist at Dresden's Sophienkirche, which became vacant after Christian Petzold's death , in a letter dated June 2, 1733 . In the audition on June 22, 1733 he was defeated by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach .

In March 1734 he is documented as a harpsichordist in the court orchestra of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich II in Ruppin . He probably owes his appointment to the intercession of Franz Benda and the flute virtuoso Johann Joachim Quantz, who was very much appreciated by Friedrich II .

During Friedrich's campaign on the Rhine, the latter sent his chapel to the court of sister Wilhelmine von Bayreuth . On June 22, 1734 Carl Heinrich Graun , Franz Benda and Schaffrath left for Erlangen . On the outward journey Schaffrath is likely to have visited Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he greatly admired, in Leipzig . Schaffrath and Franz Benda stayed in Erlangen until September 1734 and returned to Ruppin via Dresden.

In 1736 Friedrich II moved into Rheinsberg Castle , where the chapel naturally followed. In a report from this time Schaffrath is mentioned as a harpsichordist who is "known to everyone". After his coronation as King of Prussia on May 31, 1740, Friedrich resided alternately in Berlin and Potsdam . At that time, his band consisted of 40 musicians (including Franz Benda, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Johann Gottlieb Graun , Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Gottlieb Janitsch ). Schaffrath worked as a harpsichordist and chamber musician. From 1740/41 he shared the office with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; both alternated in the residences in Potsdam and Berlin. Schaffrath received 400 Thaler annually.

Very little is known about Schaffrath's life as Friedrich's harpsichordist. In July and September 1742 he was reimbursed for travel expenses for trips to Potsdam from the king's private box; in March 1744 he received 33 thalers from Friedrich "before the 2nd Clavecien Concerte".

At the end of the Trinity quarter of 1744, Schaffrath entered the service of Anna Amalie von Prussia , the sister of Frederick II, as a chamber musician, to whom he dedicated Opus 1, which was printed in Nuremberg in 1746 .

During this time, many compositions by Schaffrath for various Berlin concert associations and associations of music-loving citizens and aristocrats were created (e.g. for the "Musikübende Gesellschaft", the "Friday Academies", the "Monday Assemblies" and the "Saturday concerts" "). Schaffrath also worked as a music and composition teacher. His best-known students include the castrato Felice Salimbeni (taught between 1742 and 1744), Chr. W. Hempel, the violinist August Kohn , the flautist Friedrich Wilhelm Riedt (probably taught 1740/41) and the amateur violonist and composer Johann Otto Uhde . In connection with this teaching activity, a fragmentarily preserved or unfinished textbook on music as well as analytical explanations on three-part string fugues were probably created.

Christoph Schaffrath died on February 17, 1763 in Berlin. In the "Berlinische Nachrichten" of February 22, 1763 there is a short obituary for the composer:

“On the 17th of this month Mr. Christoph Schaffrath, first Cammer = Musicus Ihro Königl, died here. Your Highness, the Princess Amalia of Prussia, on a river in the 52nd year of his age. The premature loss of this man, who is skilled and thoroughly experienced in music, will be regretted by all music connoisseurs; and anyone so appreciative of merit and virtue will return the praise of a righteous man. "

The newspaper report seems to contradict the autograph dating of Schaffrath in the manuscript AmB 603: accordingly he was still alive on November 5, 1763.

Schaffrath's estate fell to Johann Philipp Kirnberger , who in turn bequeathed it to Princess Amalie's library. Other parts of the estate or copies of Schaffrath's compositions ended up in the archive of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin and in various other Berlin collections, especially the Thulemeyer collection . For this reason, the majority of Schaffrath's manuscripts are now in the Berlin State Library .

Works

• Op. 1: Be Duetti a harpsichord obligato e violino o Flauto traverso concertato (Nuremberg)
• about 20 overtures and symphonies for strings and bc.
• 72 harpsichord concerts
• 3 concerts for 2 harpsichords
• 3 violin concerts
• 1 oboe concerto
• 1 flute concert
• several lost concertos for flute , oboe, bassoon , viola da gamba
• 1 quintet (lost)
• several quartets
• over 30 trios
• over 40 solo sonatas for various instruments
• over 40 sonatas and individual pieces for harpsichord

A chronology of Schaffrath's works has yet to be worked out. Only in exceptional cases is the date of composition known for a work by Schaffrath, because Schaffrath's first draft has been preserved. This is the case with an E flat major symphony (June 13, 1738), various fragmentary harpsichord sonatas (August 1755) and some two-part fugues (November 1761).

Appreciation

Christoph Schaffrath is one of the main representatives of the first Berlin song school . His imaginative and melodic, baroque counterpoint with the gallant style of north German sensibility mixed works were very popular in the music-loving salons of Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg wrote in 1754: Schaffrath "is known enough to the world for his beautiful and universally popular compositions, various of which have become generally known for the grand piano through printing". In 1746, Bodenburg, the rector of the Joachimsthaler Gymnasium , even named him in the same breath as Georg Friedrich Handel , Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The main feature of many of Schaffrath's compositions is a two-bar theme that is repeated in the octave and a motivic work that differs significantly from the baroque spinning technique . Often there are motivic connections between the movements of a work. Schaffrath was famous for the artistic decoration ("arbitrary change") of slow movements. The ornaments of the harpsichord part written down by Schaffrath for at least 20 harpsichord concerts give an impression of his art.

So far, 72 harpsichord concertos by Schaffrath have been recorded, more than by any other composer in northern Germany, and this makes him an important representative of the then still young genre. All of Schaffrath's concerts show the Vivaldic ritornello form . The fast movements usually have 4 tutti and 3 solo episodes, the slow movements 3 tutti and 2 solo episodes. There is evidence that Schaffrath wrote harpsichord concerts during his time in Rheinsberg.

The fact that Christoph Schaffrath's compositional work consists exclusively of instrumental works may have limited the distribution of the compositions. Next to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, posterity chose Carl Heinrich Graun as the main representative of Berlin Classical Music; but characteristic of the latter, not because of his numerous operas and instrumental works, but because of the oratorio “Der Tod Jesu”, which was performed regularly until after 1800. Schaffrath was largely forgotten. Only recently has it been noticed again.

Web links

• Entry on Christoph Schaffrath on Edition Güntersberg

literature

• Reinhard Oestreich: Directory of the works of Christoph Schaffrath (CSWV) . Ortus Musikverlag, Beeskow 2012, ISBN 978-3-937788-22-7 .