Books › The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910 › scan 54
Scan 54
The Instruments of the Modern Orchestra and Early Records of the Precursors of the Violin Family, in Two Volumes, Vol. I- Modern Orchestral Instruments, 1910
12 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Compass.—This extends with all chromatic intervals:—
3Written
5Sounded
7Quality of Tone.—The notes at both extremes are not much used; the lower, because their tone is weak and ineffective, the upper, because of their extreme shrillness, and of the difficulty of playing them anything but fortissimo.
9This instrument, except for a few harmonics on the violin, is the acutest in pitch existing. The medium register is the most used; its tone is clear and sharp. The Piccolo has been found of the greatest value in imitative music, to depict the whistling of the wind in storms as in Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," Wagner's "Flying Dutchman," and in conjunction with the violins in tremolo, to depict the rustling of leaves in the breeze, as in the beautiful "Waldweben" in "Siegfried" and the "Götterdämmerung." Verdi, in his "Falstaff," has shown that it can become a powerful comic agent, helping to reflect in the orchestral music the humorous situations of the drama. Berlioz had a great penchant for the piccolo. An exhaustive description of it may be found in his "Treatise on Instrumentation."
11The piccolo is used singly in orchestras, and is generally played by one of the flautists. (For the origin of the instrument, see chapter on the Flute).
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