Madame Florentine Besson and the Birth of the Modern Trumpet: WHM Talk

Please note that, due to the temporary closure of St Cecilia's Hall, this talk will be held at the Centre for Research Collections, located within the University of Edinburgh Main Library, NOT at St Cecilia's Hall.

The origin of the modern piston-valve trumpet—the trumpet used in most countries today—is often associated with the French firm of Besson. But when and by whom was this iconic trumpet design invented? French patents, issued to Florentine Besson née Ridoux (1829-1877), wife of founder Gustave Auguste Besson (1820-1875), unambiguously shine light on her role in the invention of the modern trumpet. Married to Gustave Besson in 1847 at the age of 18, Florentine was not only the mother of his four children (three daughters and a son) but clearly an equal business partner who was likely trained in the trade by her husband. Be transported into the mid-nineteenth-century world of a competent, technically savvy, international businesswoman, mother and inventor of one of the most influential instruments of the modern age, the trumpet. Dr Sabine Klaus will be assisted by curator Dr Sarah Deters, who will demonstrate various trumpets from the St Cecilia’s Hall collections.

Dr Sabine K. Klaus is Professor Emerita from the University of South Dakota and most recently served in the role of Mirrey Keyboard Instrument Cataloguer at the University of Edinburgh’s Musical Instrument Museum. From 1999–2023 she was Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Curator of Brass Instruments at the National Music Museum, University of South Dakota. She is the author of a five-volume book series, Trumpets and Other High Brass, published between 2012 and 2024.

Part of the Women's History Month Celebration Series 2026.