The Rottenburgh family was a Belgian family of instrument makers and musicians who created a highly regarded collection of instruments in Brussels in the 18th century. The Rottenburgh family was the leading provider of

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

s to the Belgian market in the 1700s, supplying the

Royal Palace of Brussels The Royal Palace of Brussels (french: Palais royal de Bruxelles, , nl, Koninklijk Paleis van Brussel , german: Königlicher Palast von Brüssel) is the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capita ...

and all of the city's cathedrals. They also made

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s for these institutions. The patriarch of the family, Herman-Arnold Rottenburgh (d. 1711), was a violinist in the royal chapel at the

Palace of Coudenberg The Palace of Coudenberg (french: Palais du Coudenberg, nl, Coudenbergpaleis) was a royal residence situated on the Coudenberg or Koudenberg (; Dutch for "Cold Hill"), a small hill in what is today the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. F ...

. His son, Jean-Hyacinth Rottenburgh (1672–1756), was the most important member of the Rottenburgh family. Jean-Hyacinth made

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

and

s which are still valued today for use in early music ensembles; particularly

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s and

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

s. As a woodwind maker Jean-Hyacinth used techniques of the French heritage of instrument making; utilizing a narrow bore that created instruments very similar to the designs and proportions of those made by

Jacques-Martin Hotteterre Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (29 September 167316 July 1763), also known as Jacques Martin or Jacques Hotteterre, was a French composer and flautist who was the most celebrated of a family of wind instrument makers and wind performers. Biograph ...

. As a string instrument maker, Rottenburgh followed Flemish and German convention of construction, while simultaneously being influenced by Italian practices and preferences in proportion and timbre. Jean-Hyacinth's son Godfroid-Adrien Rottenburgh (1703–68) and his grandson François-Joseph Rottenburgh (1743–1803) continued the family business of instrument making, and faced little competition in the Belgian market of the 18th century. Several instruments created by the family are part of the collection at the

Musical Instrument Museum, Brussels The Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) (french: Musée des instruments de musique, nl, Muziekinstrumentenmuseum) is a music museum in central Brussels, Belgium. It is part of the Royal Museums of Art and History (RMAH) and is internationally r ...

. Stefaan Ottenbourgs is the leading historian on the family and their instruments. In 1986 he published his doctoral dissertation "De familie Rottenburgh: Een muzikale dynastie te Brussel in de achttiende eeuw"; completing his degree at

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

. This was followed by journal articles on the family published in ''Musica antiqua : actuele informatie over oude muziek'' (November 1988 and February 1989). American music instrument maker

Friedrich von Huene Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...

developed a model line of recorders for

Moeck Musikinstrumente + Verlag Moeck Musikinstrumente + Verlag is a leading German manufacturer of recorders and a music publisher. The company was founded in 1925 by ''Hermann Moeck'' (1896-1982) in Celle. In 1960 his son Hermann Alexander Moeck (1922-2010) took over the bus ...

named for the Rottenburgh family and inspired by the designs of their instruments which are still in production. The Rottenburgh line of recorders developed for Moeck were funded through a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

given to Heine in 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rottenburgh Artist families Bassoon makers Belgian musical instrument makers Belgian families Bowed string instrument makers Flute makers Oboe makers Recorder makers