Like the flute the modern piccolo is equipped with the Boehm mechanism. For ease of playing, flutists who often have to switch from the flute to the piccolo usually prefer piccolos with a lip plate.

Piccolos with a metal headjoint very often have a lip plate like the flute, whereas the embouchure on purely wood piccolos is carved out of the wood. The embouchure in the headjoint is only very slightly smaller than the flute's, although narrower. In addition to piccolos with tubing either entirely of wood or entirely of metal combinations such as a silver head with a wood body and plastic tubing are also used. The headjoint is cylindrical, the body conical, although it can also be the other way round. Whereas the flute consists of three parts, the piccolo's tubing has only two, the headjoint and the body (or middle joint). The piccolo is about half the size of the concert flute. Since then it has been used extensively to add color and shading to the sound of the orchestra and occasionally even as a solo instrument. In many works the piercing and shrill fortissimo of the piccolo is used to heighten terror in frightening scenes.Ĭomposers of the Romantic period, particularly Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, integrated the piccolo completely into the orchestra's woodwind section. In addition, the piccolo was used for special effects, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 'The Magic Flute' (1791), for example, for a humorous portrayal of eunuchs. In his 'Rigoletto' (1851) Giuseppe Verdi first used a piccolo to symbolize lightning. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the first composers to use the piccolo in his works to imitate sounds of nature, e.g., the whistling of a stormy wind in the fourth movement of his 6th Symphony ('Pastoral Symphony', 1808).

Nowadays these parts are played by the piccolo. This applies to Georg Friedrich Handel's opera 'Rinaldo' (1711) and 'Water Music' (1715), and Antonio Vivaldi's three Concerti per flautino among others. In the first third of the 18th century parts for ”flauto piccolo” and ”flautino” began to appear in scores, although it cannot be said with any certainty today whether they were intended for the piccolo with one key or for a high recorder or flageolet.

The tubing was made first of wood, later of metal and was slightly conical. Piccolos were made in the tunings C, Db and Eb (fundamentals C5, Db5 and Eb5 - the latter tuning was favored particularly in military circles). Nevertheless, piccolos with older key mechanisms remained in use into the 20th century. In 1832 the Munich flutist Theobald Boehm invented a revolutionary mechanism for the flute and by the middle of the 19th century it had already found its way onto the piccolo.

In the years that followed the piccolo's development mirrored that of the flute. In the early 18th century the piccolo began to appear with one to four keys, and more were added as the century progressed. When in the mid 17th century the art of flute-making underwent a process of rapid innovation, the technical improvements made to the flute were passed on one by one to its smaller sister, the piccolo traverso. The piccolo, and the concert flute, both evolved from the military transverse flute of the Middle Ages. At this time, in order to indicate the transverse flute, the word cross, transverse or traverso (i.e., the translation of this word in the respective language) was used. Flautino or flauto piccolo referred to a treble recorder. Until the 18th century the recorder was always indicated by the term flauto. The flute family also included instruments of every register, from the treble recorder (flauto piccolo) to the bass flute (flautone). These two instruments were characteristic of foot soldiers.ĭuring the 16th century many instruments were further adapted in imitation of the human voice and came to form instrument families consisting of models in various registers. In the Middle Ages military musicians played a simple transverse flute with six finger-holes alongside the drum.

Piccolo keyclick