German Single-Manual Harpsichord After Vater

The most intriguing examples of 18th-century German harpsichord building come from the north, particularly Hamburg, where builders like Hass experimented with 16' stops and instruments with three keyboards; but those large, complex machines are really outside the mainstream of European harpsichord building. The one surviving harpsichord by Christian Vater of Hannover, dated 1738, is a much more modest and conventional and therefore much more useful instrument. And with a full 2x8', 1x4' disposition on one keyboard, it is equipped to play almost the entire harpsichord literature.

Like French harpsichords, German instruments were also influenced by Flemish models. But unlike the French, who gave up their thin-case 17th-century designs for the heavy-case Flemish models, the Germans retained the lighter construction, and their graceful, double-curved bentsides as well. Hence, the Vater has a certain slender elegance denied to the heavier Flemish and French instruments. With its fairly wide compass and all-brass stringing, its somewhat dry but powerful sound is particularly appropriate for the music of J. S. Bach. It is transposable to three different pitch levels.