Peter Bressan

Peter Bressan (1663 - 1731) was a noted woodwind instrument maker of whose work several examples exist in museums and private collections.

Life

Peter Bressan was born as Pierre Jaillard in Bourg-en-Bresse, France.^[1] Pierre was probably educated at the College in Bourg until he was apprenticed to a master turner at the age of fifteen. It is not known where he learned his instrument making skills but it is surmised that he may have studied under the Hotteterres in Paris.

In 1691 Pierre was recorded as having played the hautboy (oboe) for William III of England.^[2] Subsequently, there are a number of references to him by authors of the time as a maker and seller of musical instruments including recorders, voice flutes, flutes, oboes and bassoons.

At some point he changed his surname to Bressan; possibly because 'Jaillard' proved hard for the English to pronounce.

His workshop and home was located in Dutchy House, in part of the old Savoy Palace in London. This part of London had a rich history and for many years had sheltered foreigners and especially French nationals. Bressan became naturalised in 1723. He and his wife Mary Margaret had ten children but only four survived to adulthood.

Bressan died in 1731 while living in Tournai, Belgium. His will shows him to have been well off, as it includes paintings, busts and many musical instruments.

Work

Surviving instruments by Bressan include alto recorders and voice flutes. No examples of his oboes or bassoons are known to exist. The Grosvenor Museum in Chester has a suit of four instruments. The Bate Collection in Oxford has a well known example of an alto recorder on which a number of modern copies have been based. The recorder player Frans Brüggen had a collection of historical instruments^[3] amongst which are a number of original Bressans, including the voice flute. The instruments are finely made usually in boxwood or fruitwood and decorated with ivory rings.

Legacy

Bressan's surviving instruments are of renowned quality and have inspired a number of reproduction instruments. Comparisons of the existing recorders have been made by Bouterse,^[4] including notes on how to replicate them and the problems of re-scaling the copies so that they can be played at the modern concert pitch standards of A=440 or A=415 hertz. Zen-On make a plastic version of an alto by Bressan, scaled to play at A=440 hertz rather than the baroque pitch of the originals.

References