1. Genealogy
2. Biography
3. Works list
4. Bibliography
5. Musical instruments (attributed)
6. New research
7. An update to my 1996
JAMS article on the Hotteterre flutes
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This engraving, by Bernard Picart (1673-1733), appears
as the frontispiece in Hotteterre's Principes de
la flûte traversière (Paris: Ballard, 1707). It
is usually presumed to be a portrait of the author.
The type of flute the figure is playing is made in
three sections (head, body or middle joint, and foot
joint). Though there are many other surviving three-joint
flutes, the type depicted here has several decorative
elements unique to the "Hotteterre" type.
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1. Genealogy
Jacques Hotteterre "Le Romain" was one of the 6 children of
Martin Hotteterre (d.1712) and Marie Crespy. Martin
was himself one of the two sons of Jean Hotteterre I (d.c.1691)
and Marguerite Delalande. Jacques's grandfather Jean I and
his two brothers, Nicolas I (d.1693) and Louis I (d.1669)
were the sons of Loys de Haulteterre (d.c.1625) and
Jehanne Gabriel.
2. Biography
The details of Hotteterre's life are sketchy. He was the son
of Martin Hotteterre and Marie Crespy, born in Paris on 29
September 1674. He may have have held a post in the royal
music as basse de hautbois et basse de violon, perhaps
as early as 1689, and officially from 1692--or perhaps the
"Jacques Hotteterre" named in this post was a relative of
the same name, previously employed at the English court.
The significance of the nickname "le Romain" has
recently (Franci, 2002) been illuminated by
the revelation that Jacques lived in Rome early
in his career and spent two years (1698-1700)
on the payroll of Prince Francesco Ruspoili, one
of the era's most powerful Roman merchants, before
adopting the moniker some time between 1705 and
1707. By 1708, according to the title page of
his Pièces pour la flûte traversière,
he was "flûte de la Chambre du Roy".
In 1717 he inherited, conditional on payment of
a very large fee, René Pignon Descoteaux's position
as "Jouëur de Fluste de la musique de chambre".
Jacques appears to have been a fashionable teacher
of aristocratic amateurs, perhaps with an international
reputation, due partly perhaps to his method book
of 1707 for flute, recorder and oboe, which was
reprinted, translated and plagiarized in subsequent
decades. His L'Art de préluder sur
la flûte traversière (1719) is a rare
document of the manner in which preludes and practice
studies could be improvised.
Jacques composed two books of pieces (suites) for flute and
continuo, a book of trio sonatas (two flutes and bass), and
three suites for two unaccompanied flutes or other instruments.
He was noted as a participant in court performances in 1720
and 1721, and in 1743 was included in a list of the most famous
musicians in France. He married Marie Geneviève Charpentier
on 31 March 1728; the couple had six children.
3. Works list (transverse flute)
Source: Frans Vester, Flute
Music of the 18th Century (Monteux, France: Musica Rara,
1985) pp. 241-43
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[H 1140]
Sonates à deux dessus par le Sigr Francesco Torelio. Recueillis
et accomodées au goût de la flûte traversière par Mr Hotteterre
le Romn . . . et se peuvent exécuter sur les autres instruments
de dessus, opera prima (Paris: Boivin, 1723)
[H 1141] Piéces pour la flûte
traversière, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue
. . . livre premier, oeuvre seconde. (Paris, Christophe
Ballard, 1708)
[H 1142] Piéces pour la flûte
traversière, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue
. . . oeuvre second. Nouvelle édition . . . augmentée de
plusieurs agréments, et d'une démonstration de la manière
qu'ils se doivent faire; ensemble une basse adjoutée aux
pièces de deux flûtes. (Paris: auteur, Foucault, 1715; another
edition: Paris: auteur, Boivin, 1715 is H
1143)
[H 1149] Sonates en trio pour
les flûtes traversières, flûtes-à-bec, violons, hautbois,
&c . . . livre premier, oeuvre troisième (Paris: auteur,
Foucault, 1712)
[H 1155] Première suitte de
pièces à deux dessus, sans basse continue, pour les flûtes-traversières,flûtes
à bec, violes, &c . . . oeuvre quatrième. (Paris: auteur,
Hotteterre, Foucault, 1712)
[H 1162] Deuxième livre de
pièces pour la flûte-traversière et autres instruments,
avec la basse . . . oeuvre Ve. (Paris, auteur, Foucault,
1715; another edition: Paris: auteur, Boivin, 1715, is H
1165)
[H 1170] Deuxième suitte de
pièces à deux dessus pour les flûtes traversières, flûtes-à-bec,
violes, &c., avec une basse adjoutée séparement et sans
altérations des dessus, laquelle on y pourra joindre dans
le concert . . . oeuvre VIeme. (Paris: auteur, Foucault,
1717)
[H 1175] L'art de préluder
sur la flûte traversière, sur la flûte-à-bec, sur le hautbois,
et autres instrumens de dessus, avec des préludes tous faits
sur tous les tons, dans différs. mouvems. et différens caractères
. . . oeuvre VIIe. (Paris: auteur, Boivin, 1719)
[H 1178] Troisième suitte de
pièces à deux dessus pour les flûtes traversières, flûtes-à-bec,hautbois
& muzettes . . . oeuvre VIII. (Paris: auteur, Boivin, 1722)
[H 1180] Airs et brunettes
à deux et trois dessuss pour les flûtes traversières tirez
des meilleurs autheurs; anciens, et modernes . . . Ornez
d'agrémens par Mr. Hotteterre le Romain. Et recueillis par
M****. (Paris: Hotteterre, Boivin [c. 1721])
[H 1185] Sonates à deux dessus
par le Sigr. Roberto Valentine, opera quinta [actually from
his Op. 4]. Accomodées à la flûte traversière par Mr. Hotteterre
le Romn . . . Et se peuvent exécuter sur les autres instrumens
de dessus. (Paris: Hotteterre, Boivin, 1721)
Tutors
Principes de la Flûte traversière, ou flûte
d'Allemagne; de la flute à bec, ou flute douce; et du haut-bois,
Divisez par Traitez. Par Sieur Hotteterre-le-Romain, Flûte
de la Chambre du Roy, (Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1707)
L'Art de préluder sur la flûte traversière,
(Paris: Author, 1719)
4. Bibliography
Anderies, John, "Chansons, Airs & Brunettes: The Practice
of Playing French Vocal Music on the Transverse Flute" (MA
thesis, Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University, 1993)
Berryman, Brian Alexander, "Jacques-Martin Hotteterre.
'Les Goûts-Reunis' und die Entwicklung der französischen
Barockmelodik" Tibia 20.3 (1995), 517-31
Borjon de Scellery, Ch-Émanuel, Traité
de la Musette (Lyon, 1672)
Bowers, Jane, "New Light on
the Development of the Transverse Flute between about 1650
and about 1770", Journal of the American Musical Instrument
Society 3 (1977), 5-56
Bowers, Jane M. "The Hotteterre Family of Woodwind Instrument
Makers", in ed. Rien De Reede, Concerning the Flute
(Amsterdam: Broekmans & van Poppel, 1984)
Bowers, Jane Meredith, "The French Flute School from 1700
to 1760" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley,
1971)
Carlez, Jules, Les Hotteterre. Notes biographiques
(Caen: F. Le Blanc Hardel, 1877)
Castellani, Marcello, "L'art de `transposer' sur la Flûte
traversière. La pratica della trasposizione secondo
Jacques Hotteterre" Il Flauto Dolce XVII (April
1987), 26-31
Dikmans, Gregory Paul, "The
Performance Practice of Early 18th-century French
Flute Music: A Critical Translation of Jacques Hotteterre's
Principes de la flûte traversière,
Commentary and Recording of Selected Works", (M.A. thesis,
La Trobe University, 1991)
Franchi, Saviero, Il principe Ruspoli: l'oratorio in Arcadia, in Saviero Franchi, ed., Percorsi dell'oratorio Romano. Da “historia sacra” a melodrama spirituale , atti della giornata di studi (Viterbo, 11 settembre 1999) (Rome: Ibimus, 2002), 245-316, at 280-81, nn. 78-9.
Giannini, Tula, "Jacques Hotteterre and his Father, Martin:
A Re-examination based on Recently Found Documents", Early
Music, XXI.3 (1993), 377-395
Mauger, Nicolas, Les Hotteterre:
Célèbres joueurs et facteurs de flûtes,
hautbois, bassons et musettes des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.
Nouvelles recherches, supplément à la brochure
publiée en 1894 par Ernest Thoinan (Paris: Fischbacher,
1912)
Powell, Ardal, "The
Hotteterre Flute; Six Replicas in Search of a Myth",
Journal of the American Musicological Society XLIX.2
(1996), 225-63
. . . An update to
this article is here in electronic form.
Preussner, Eberhard, Die musikalischen Reisen des Herrn
von Uffenbach (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1949)
Sowinski, Hans, "Steirische Volksmusikinstrumente", Musik
inOstalpenraumen (Das Johanneum 3) (Graz: Steireischen
Verlagsanstalt, 1940), 188-202
Stradner, Gerhard, Musikinstrumente in Grazer Sammlungen,
Tabulae Musicae Austriacae 11 (Vienna: Oesterreichischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1986), 25
Thoinan, Ernest, Les Hotteterre et les Chédeville
(Paris: Sagot, 1894)
Waterhouse, William, The New Langwill Index (London,
Tony Bingham, 1993)
Young, Phillip T., 4900 Historical Woodwind Instruments
(London: Tony Bingham, 1993)
5.
Musical instruments (attributed)
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The maker's mark of the Hotteterre flute in Graz (A-Graz:
Landesmuseum Johanneum 08447 *1284, ex Sowinsky) According
to my 1996 article, this was the only genuine Hotteterre
flute known--at that time, at least.
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The surviving woodwind instruments marked HOTTETERRE
include recorders of various sizes and oboes as well as
flutes, carrying stamps of several different kinds. In 1894,
Thoinan suggested that those marked HOTTETERRE
with an anchor below (see photo above) were the work of
Jean I Hotteterre and his successors, Martin and Jacques.
All the flutes formerly attributed to "Hotteterre" carried
this mark. As listed in Phillip T. Young's 4900 Historical
Woodwind Instruments (London: Tony Bingham, 1993) they
were: [Y1] D-Berlin: 2670
[Y2] Russia-St Petersburg: 471
[Y3] A-Graz: Landesmus[eum Johanneum] 1384
In a 1996 article,
I argued that Y1 and Y2, along with four other
instruments of the same type, were not original
Hotteterre flutes but replicas made in the 19th
century. The flutes I identified as replicas
were: [P471] (=Y2) Russia-St
Petersburg: Musical Instruments Museum 471 ex
Snoeck
[P472] Russia-St Petersburg: Musical Instruments Museum
472 ex Snoeck
[Bn] (=Y1) D-Berlin: Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung
2670 ex Snoeck
[C] F-La Couture: Musical Instruments Museum 11
[Br] B-Brussels: Museum of Musical Instruments 3131
[M] US-Washington DC: Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library
of Congress 428
That left the following two
flutes of the "Hotteterre" type as (probably) genuine early
18th-century instruments:
[G] (=Y3)
A-Graz: Landesmuseum Johanneum 08447 *1384 ex Sowinsky
[S] D-Stuttgart: Private Collection
Of these, the second is unstamped,
and because its design is not a close enough match with
the Graz flute, cannot securely be attributed to an Hotteterre
maker.
Now, another flute stamped
HOTTETERRE has been
discovered. Instead of an anchor, it has the
letters LR below the maker's name.
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The Belgian attorney and amateur musical instrument
collector, César Charles Snoeck (c. 1825-1899)
(photo from Die Woche, 16 June 1902, by courtesy
of Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung, Preußischer
Kulturbesitz, Berlin).
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6. New research
Jane Bowers published a
useful article summarizing what was known
of the Hotteterre family and their instruments
in 1984.
In a 1993 article, Tula
Giannini presented newly discovered archival
documents showing that although Jacques Hotteterre's
father, Martin (d. 1712) was a woodwind
maker, Jacques himself did not own any flutes
at the time of his marriage in 1728, and that
on his death in 1763 he owned no flutes or flute
music. Her article introduced the previously
unknown "English" Jacques Hotteterre, suggesting
that he rather than Jacques le Romain was the
holder of official posts in the late 17th century.
In a 1996 article, I
argued that of the three best known flutes stamped
HOTTETERRE, only one (A-Graz)
is a genuine late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century
instrument. I reported various indications that
the other two were nineteenth-century copies
of a lost original Hotteterre flute. I traced
the recent emergence of a myth which holds that
the "baroque" flute was invented by Jacques
or another of the Hotteterres.
A
second apparently genuine HOTTETERRE
flute has recently come to light. For more about
this instrument and its significance, see the
update to my JAMS
article on the Hotteterre flute.
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documents 