Music Sound

A Yamaha piccolo. The body is made of ABS resin, and the head is plated with silver.

The piccolo is a small flute. Its name in Italian, "flauto piccolo" means "small flute". Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, about one octave above the concert flute (making it, effectively, a sopranino flute). Music for the piccolo is written one octave lower than the sounds desired in order to avoid too many ledger lines above the staff. Fingerings on the piccolo correspond to fingerings on the flute, but sound an octave higher. Also, many alternate fingerings may be used to tune the individual pitches, as many are consistently out of tune.

In addition to the standard C piccolo, there is a piccolo pitched in D flat that is sometimes used in bands and a piccolo pitched in A flat rarely used outside Italian marching bands.

Timbre and construction

Because the piccolo sounds in a very high register, it has a potential to be strident or shrill. Thus, it is often used only as an ornamental, "flavor" or "garnish" instrument. A typical flute section may include only one or two piccolos, and since piccolo players usually also play flute, they may alternate between the two, according to what is appropriate for the music. Not all flute players play piccolo. Though the fingerings are the same, the embouchure and other differences do require a separate effort to learn.

The piccolo is somewhat notorious for being difficult to play in tune, as evidenced by the joke circulating among musicians that defines a minor second as "two piccolos playing in unison". Besides being generally sensitive to tuning, the piccolo does require a great deal of breath support and is quite conspicuous when out of tune.

Piccolos may be constructed out of wood, metal, plastic, or a combination. Many piccolo players find that wooden piccolos offer a more mellow timbre than metal ones. A popular compromise combines a metal head joint with a body made from wood. In more recent years the piccolo has also been made out of a plastic composite material. The composite piccolo is durable enough for marching and produces a fair quality sound. Most professionals agree that it should be made out of one material as two separate ones rise to separate temperatures, leading to tuning inconsistencies.

Traditional use

The piccolo, historically with no keys, today with keys different from those of the classical piccolo, is also used in conjunction with marching drums in traditional formations at the carnival of Basel, Switzerland.

The first symphonic composition in which a piccolo was used was Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, also the first symphonic work to use a trombone.

References

• Kennan, Kent Wheeler. The Technique of Orchestration New York: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1952: 88 - 91
• Sadie, Stanley "Piccolo." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, Vol. 19. NY: Oxford University Press, 2001.