Biography
Although active as both performer and composer on French soil, Hotman was likely German by birth. Royal patronage supported him until 1661, during which time his reputation flourished throughout the kingdom. Contemporaries Rousseau and Mersenne both singled out Hotman and Maugars as unmatched masters of the viol. An unbroken succession of distinguished bass-viol players—extending from Maugars via Hotman to Sainte-Colombe, Marais, Forqueray, and d’Hervelois—shaped French taste for more than a hundred years. Hotman’s “Suite de Monsieur Otteman” comprises an allemande, courante, saraband, and gigue whose textures mirror contemporary lute writing.