Christian Vater was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 and harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

 builder.

He was born in Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

; his father Martin Vater was an organ builder and gave him his first instruction in the craft. He went on to work for Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger was a highly influential German organ builder. He was primarily active in Northern Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany, where a number of his instruments survive to the present day; his organs can also be found as far away as Portugal and Brazil.Notable examples still in...

 as a journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

 between 1697 and 1700. He worked independently from c.1702. He was organist to the court of the Elector of Hanover from 1708–1709, and became organ builder to the court in 1714, a role in which his son Johannes would follow him. By 1717 he had built or renovated thirty-three organs. He mainly worked in Hanover and surrounding places: Osnabrück

Osnabrück

Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...

 and Oldenburg

Oldenburg

Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

. Outside this area, he worked in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 and Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

; he also built an organ for the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, 1724–1726, and rebuilt an organ in the Westerkerk

Westerkerk

The Westerkerk is a church of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands denomination in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631 after a design by Hendrick de Keyser. It is next to Amsterdam's Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal....

 in 1726. Aside from organs, he made harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

s and clavichord

Clavichord

The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...

s.

His surviving organs are at Bockhorn

Bockhorn

Bockhorn can refer to two municipalities in Germany:*Bockhorn, Bavaria, in the district of Erding, Bavaria.*Bockhorn, Lower Saxony, in the district of Friesland, Lower Saxony....

, Oldenburg

Oldenburg

Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

 (1722); Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (1726); Wiefelstede

Wiefelstede

Wiefelstede is a municipality in the Ammerland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 15 km northwest of Oldenburg.It is home to Brötje Automation GmbH, an automated aircraft assembly manufacturer....

, Oldenburg (c.1729); St Nikolai, Gifhorn

Gifhorn

Gifhorn is a town and capital of the district Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the industrial and commercially important cities nearby, Brunswick and Wolfsburg...

 (1748) and Hohenrode, Bad Hersfeld

Bad Hersfeld

The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld is the district seat of Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast of Kassel....

 (1749); remnants such as cases and pipework survive elsewhere. His organs have well-balanced specifications and are typical of the late northern German Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 organ.

Parisian harpsichord maker Antoine Vater was his brother, and taught Henri Hemsch

Henri Hemsch

Henri Hemsch, original name Johann Heinrich Hemsch , was a French harpsichord maker of German origin....

.

Sources

• Hans Klotz: 'Vater, Christian', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-18), http://www.grovemusic.com/