Jacques Hotteterre is the most distinguished of a family that provided the French court with a number of players and composers in the 17th and 18th centuries.

He followed the family tradition of instrument-making and performance, playing bassoon in the Grands Hautbois of the court and flute in the music of the royal chamber.

He was popular as a teacher and wrote instruction manuals for the transverse flute and other wind instruments, as well as for the musette, the fashionable French bagpipe.

Hotteterre was generally known as "le Romain", suggesting a possible period spent in Rome.

Hotteterre's compositions include a number of publications calling for one or two flutes, or alternative instrumentation, with other accompanying instruments.

Suites in a number of movements are melodically effective and provide a useful source of information on contemporary French techniques of ornamentation.