Biography
From France came Hotteterre, celebrated as a teacher of music, performer on multiple instruments, and maker of those same instruments. His role as bassoonist with The Grand Hautbois dates at least to 1708, while by 1717 he had taken up flute duties in the chamber of the King. Equally distinguished as a musette player, he participated in fashioning the three surviving transverse flutes of remarkable quality, preserved today in Berlin, Leningrad, and Graz and bearing only the inscription "HOTTETERRE." With "Principes de la flute traversiere" he produced the earliest known manual devoted to flute technique in any nation, simultaneously treating recorder and oboe pedagogy and the rudiments of woodwind execution, above all tonguing and ornamentation. In 1708 he issued the first book of suites written for transverse flute and bass, together with novel compositions for one or two flutes without accompaniment. By 1715 he had completed extended multi-movement flute works that, although formed from shorter movements reminiscent of a lengthened suite, aligned more closely with sonata form. The treatise "L'art de preluder sur la flute traversiere" examined the improvisation of preludes on the flute, and a later publication supplied instruction on the musette. French ornamentation, inventive flair, powerful emotional depth, and carefully balanced construction define the character of his music.