Christoph Schaffrath

Christoph Schaffrath [Schafrath, Schafrat]
(b Hohenstein, nr Chemnitz, 1709; d Berlin, 17 Feb 1763).

German harpsichordist, composer and teacher. One of the earliest references to him was in 1733, when he applied for the position of organist at the Sophienkirche, Dresden. In his application he stated that for the past three years he had been ‘harpsichordist to the king’ and the Polish Prince Sangusko. Although one of three candidates short-listed, Schaffrath was unsuccessful and the post went to Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. By the following year, however, he was in the service of Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick the Great). He was among those who moved with the prince’s establishment from Ruppin to Rheinsberg in 1736, and on Frederick’s accession in 1740 was installed as harpsichordist in the court Kapelle at Berlin. In 1741 he was appointed musician to the king’s sister, Princess Amalia, a title which appears on contemporary publications of his music and which he was still using in the 1760s. Although he remained at Berlin until his death his name is not included in Marpurg’s register of the Kapelle (1754); this implies that he left the orchestra at some point, possibly after the 1741 appointment.