Johann Ulrich Sponsel

Johann Ulrich Sponsel was a Lutheran pastor and German writer whose musical output, though slight, has retained interest for organ historians. Born in Muggendorf, in Upper Franconia, and dying in Burgbernheim, in Central Franconia, he spent almost his entire life within the ecclesiastical world of his region.

His education included the Gymnasium Casimirianum in Coburg, which he attended with a three-year break between 1741 and 1744, and studies in philosophy, theology and oriental languages at the University of Erlangen until 1746. After a post as adiutor at the gymnasium in Bayreuth, he obtained in 1748 the position of preacher in the St George district. In 1753 he was named honorary member of the Lateinische Gesellschaft of Jena and, in that same year, became pastor in Lenkersheim. In 1766 he moved to Burgbernheim as pastor and ecclesiastical superintendent.

His publications concentrated above all on religious matters. His only musical work is Orgelhistorie, published in Nuremberg in 1771, a modest volume of 167 pages arising from a sermon marking the dedication of the rebuilt organ of his church. Although it attempts to trace the history of the instrument from antiquity, the work is unreliable and relies heavily on Praetorius, Printz, Werckmeister and Adlung. Its lasting value lies in the detailed description of twenty-six important organs in Franconia and Regensburg, compiled from data gathered by correspondence.