Estienne Roger’s Foreign Composers

Abstract

In the history of music publishing, Estienne Roger takes a very special place.1 This Huguenot, born in Caen in France, who settled in Holland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, started a publishing irm in Amsterdam with another Huguenot, Jean-Louis de Lorme, in 1696. From 1697, he worked on his own. He published “conventional” books as well as music books. It was in the latter ield that he earned his renown. He can be said to have been the irst publisher with a truly international catalog and also with a truly international market. He sold his music not only in Holland, but also in the Low Countries, France, the German-speaking areas, Scandinavia and England. Roger died in 1722, but had transferred the music business nominally to his younger daughter Jeanne Roger prior to his death. Her name is mentioned in the imprint of all editions from some point in 1716 onwards, but it is unclear if she was actually involved in the management of the irm. She died later in 1722, and after her death the music publishing enterprise came into the hand of Roger’s son-in-law, Michel-Charles Le Cène, who had married