Franz Jakob Späth was born as the son of the organ builder Johann Jakob Späth (1672–1760) in Regensburg. He probably received his training at his father's company. In 1747 he received the patent for the organ and instrument maker and took over his parents' workshop around 1760. On October 6, 1747, he married Johanna Rosina Späth (approx. 1720–1790) in his hometown, and in that year received citizenship of the city. Of the children, only two daughters survived. On September 28th, Christoph Friedrich Schmahl (1739–1814) married Späth's daughter Anna Felicitas. Späth died on July 23, 1786 and was buried “in the Evangelical Church”.
plant
Späth built new organs in the two Protestant churches in Regensburg: 1750 for 1200 guilders in the Oswaldkirche (II / P / 18) and 1758 for 1100 guilders in the Dreieinigkeitskirche (II / P / 26) and maintained them. An organ building contract with the Regensburg Cathedral came about: after a representative but rejected design for an organ above the main entrance, between 1770 and 1774 he built an instrument with 24 registers and 446 pipes (how this unreliable indication of the number of pipes came about , the sources are silent about this). The new southern music gallery with the organ was also a striking eye-catcher of the baroque cathedral. This instrument served until 1835, but then no longer met the current requirements for visual and tonal taste. Therefore, the instrument was removed during the purification (regotization) of the cathedral.
Späth also made a big name for himself as a piano maker: together with his son-in-law, who joined the company as a partner in 1774, he further developed the mechanics of the tangent piano and became known far beyond the country's borders. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote in a letter in 1777: “Before I saw anything of the stone of his work, the late pianos were my favorite”. Aside from the early compositions written for harpsichord, Mozart probably wrote his piano works for this type of instrument up until this year.
Preserved instrument
Späth's extremely accurate construction of his organs also reveals his intensive activity as a piano maker. Only his organ from 1750 in the Regensburg Oswald Church has survived. After a somewhat less successful conversion to make it “usable for Bach play” in 1955 by the organ builder Paul Ott and the later, necessary reconstruction by Johannes Klais in 1991, the organ presents itself again with its typical southern German sound as it was when it was built . The disposition is:
Heinrich Herrmann: The Regensburg piano makers Späth and Schmahl and their tangent grand piano. Karl Döres, Erlangen 1928.
Siegbert Rampe : Mozart's piano music - sound world and performance practice. 2nd Edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel / London / New York / Prague 2006, ISBN 3-7618-1180-2 .
