When was piccolo invented

Until the 18th century the recorder was always indicated by the term flauto. Flautino or flauto piccolo referred to a treble recorder. At this time, in order to indicate the transverse flute, the word cross, transverse or traverso i. The piccolo, and the concert flute, both evolved from the military transverse flute of the Middle Ages.

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. In the early 18th century the piccolo began to appear with one to four keys, and more were added as the century progressed.

In 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. To date, the oldest flutes have been found in the Swabian Alps region of Germany, and are said to have been from about 43, to 35, years ago. In 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.

Nevertheless, piccolos with older key mechanisms remained in use into the 20th century. The word piccolo is in the fairly extensive group of Italian words that designate musical instruments and other musical terms. Because the piccolo is about half the size of a flute, it sounds one octave higher.

Music for the piccolo is notated one octave below the actual pitch, so the piccolo can be considered a transposing instrument. Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities. We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles.

Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email or RSS. I read this because I adore piccolo. I started on flute, but then I moved to piccolo and I play both. I audition on both and do all sorts of solos and such with both.

I just love the piccolo! Grove Music Online Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location.

Read More. By Dani Mermelstein July 7 th Although often overlooked, the piccolo is an important part of the woodwind instrument family. The piccolo is about half the size of the flute. Other than size, the biggest difference between the two instruments is that the piccolo is pitched one octave higher.