Bressan alto recorder

from the Bate Collection at the University of Oxford

This instrument was made in about 1720 by the celebrated baroque recorder maker Pierre Jaillard, also known as 'The Bressan.'  He earned this soubriquet as he came from Bourg en Bresse, the capital of Ain province near Lyon in South-central France.  At the age of 15 Jaillard was apprenticed to a local woodturner but he left after two years.  It is not known where he learned his instrument making skills but it is speculated that he studied in Paris along with his contemporary Rippert.  He moved to England in 1688 and accompanied William III to the Netherlands as one of the Kings 'Hautboys'.

This instrument came from the collection of Edgar Hunt.  It had been kept in his flat in London which had been bombed during the blitz.  Hunt returned to the site some days after the event and, whilst poking about in the rubble, was overjoyed to find the instrument wrapped up in an old shirt.

Arnold Dolmetsch 1858-1940

I came across this photo in a book called Camera Portraits: Photographs from the National Portrait Gallery, London 1839-1989.

Here's a section from the accompanying text:

Born in France of Bohemian origin, Arnold Dolmetsch trained as a musical-instrument maker with his father, and came to England about 1883. With the encouragement of Sir George Grove (of dictionary fame), he began his investigations into early English instrumental music, and the way it was played. This led to the making of lutes, virginals, clavichords, harpsichords, recorders, viols and violins, which became his life's work. In 1925, close to the time of this photograph, he founded at Haslemere, Surrey, where he lived, an annual summer festival of early music. Here he, his family and friends attempted to recreate historically authentic performances, but not for their own sake: 'This music is of absolute and not antiquarian importance; it must be played as the composer intended and on the instruments for which it was written with their correct technique; and through it personal music-making can be restored to the home, from which two centuries of professionalism have divorced it.'

The photograph was taken by Herbert Lambert 1881-1936. It is a toned bromide print, lettered: ARNOLD DOLMETSCH, c. 1925

J.S. Bach,  Cantata, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut

from an original manuscript in the Danish Royal Library's collection

For the complete manuscript, click here.

Bart Spanhove, of the Flanders Quartet, will be at the Amherst Early Music Festival in Connecticut this summer. Here's a link to a brief interview with him about his book on practicing methods. The quartet will be in residence at AEFM, and his book will be published some time this year.


http://www.amherstearlymusic.org/node/111