Bressan, Peter

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(b Bourg en Bresse, France, May 27, 1663; d Tournai, Belgium, April 21, 1731). French wind instrument maker. He was baptized Pierre Jaillard but later took the name Bressan (‘from Bresse’). His father (a waggoner) died when he was four. In 1678 he was apprenticed for two years to Jean Boysser, a wood turner in Bourg. He probably trained in instrument making and in performance with one of the Hotteterres, in Paris. His treble recorders are similar to those of his contemporary Jean-Jacques Rippert, and the hollow foot of his basset recorders is similar to those of Rippert and the Hotteterres. Bressan came to England in 1688, and is first mentioned, as ‘Brazong’ or ‘Bresong’, in English archives in 1691 as one of the ‘hautboys’ who accompanied William III to Holland. James Talbot’s manuscript (Christ Church Library Music MS 1187, c1695) gives measurements for five instruments by Bressan—tenor and basset recorder, flute, oboe, and tenor oboe—showing that his reputation had already been established....