Talk:Piccolo
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[edit] Contradicting information
From the Fifth Symphony article:
Trombones and piccolos
While it it commonly stated that the last movement of Beethoven's Fifth is the first time the trombone and the piccolo were used in a concert symphony, it is not true. The Swedish composer Joachim Eggert specified trombones for his Symphony in E-flat major written in 1807[26], and examples of earlier symphonies with a part for piccolo abound, including Michael Haydn's Symphony no. 19 in C major composed in August 1773.
From the piccolo article:
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.
I deleted it. Is that OK.
[edit] Casting aspersions
The joke remarks have ABSOLUTELY no place in an excyclopedic article. Please send me your thoughts, let's come to a consensus here. - AustinBrister 12:28, 30 April 2008 (MST)
evidenced by the joke circulating among musicians that defines a minor second as "two piccolos playing in unison". I'm not sure these remarks are appropriate. TheScotch 08:35, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Range
The range diagram should specify whether it refers to written range or concert ("sounding") range. This diagram evidently refers to concert range, but I can tell that only because I already knew the piccolo's range before I looked at the diagram. Most orchestration and band scoring texts give the piccolo's range as D to C (two octaves and a minor seventh above the low D). I can't tell to what the small-note low C refers: the piccolo does not have a foot joint as far as I know, and it's only the flute's foot joint that allows it play middle C; the flute's and the piccolo's pipes are D pipes. TheScotch 08:43, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
- I have seen a piccolo with a foot joint that went down to low C; they are EXTREMELY rare, though, and piccolo music is never written below D unless the composer is unexperienced and doesn't know that the range of the flute & picc aren't the same. I am also confused as to why it shows a high D as the highest note. I have seen fingerings for it, indicating that some people have managed to play it, but I have never been able to get out anything higher than C (nor known anyone who could, and I have talked to several professionals about it) and you will never see anything written above C. ChaosMaster 16:20, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
I don't know how to edit the image or how to make a new image. TheScotch 06:39, 5 May 2007 (UTC)
OK, I don't know why this is so hard: one image should denote the written range (which is D4 to C7) and concert pitch range (apparently D5 to C8). DKqwerty 14:28, 22 October 2007 (EST)
[edit] Clarity
Re: "A typical flute section may include only one or two piccolos.... It would help if the article distinguished "sections" in band and orchestra. Orchestra scores typically have woodwinds either in two's or in three's. Woodwinds in two's typically exclude piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet, whereas woodwinds in three's tend to have two flutes and one piccolo or three flutes with one piccolo double. It's rare to have two piccolos in an orchestra score. TheScotch 08:51, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
I've changed the article to read, "Triple-woodwind orchestral works typically include two flutes and one piccolo or three flutes with a piccolo double." TheScotch 07:40, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Ear Plugs
Re: [from the article] "It is increasingly difficult to sustain notes in the third octave – these notes can damage the eardrums. Those who play the piccolo use ear-plugs to stifle the sound."
I know several piccolo players, and as far as I can tell none of them wear ear plugs. Can we get some corroboration for the article's claim? TheScotch 07:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure those notes do not actually damage hearing, and if they do, it's very insignificant unless you're playing high C at fortississimo during entire pieces. I've removed that from the article, as the only people I've known to wear earplugs for piccolo playing are the clarinets who sit next to me, as they dislike the shrillness. ChaosMaster 02:20, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
- I think the earplugs part was added by someone playing the piccolo in a clique at Basler Fasnacht where you easily have 20+ piccolos in a formation. As you exercise indoors during the year, it is probably necessary to use earplugs. I play drums and if we have group exercises with our flutists I always use earplugs too ;-) --Goonies 13:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, ChaosMaster. TheScotch 07:01, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Actually, i'm a high-school student and all the kids in our orchestra who play the piccolo are required to wear ear-plugs when we enter the 3rd-octave. Maybe it has something to do with age?
- Or maybe it has something to do with a paranoid liability lawyer. TheScotch 20:41, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
- I'd say your orchestra director is just ignorant. When I played it in middle school, no one wore earplugs. Tell him/her that there is no reason why anyone needs to wear them, as there is no evidence that playing the piccolo damages hearing. People who have played it for years can hear just fine. ChaosMaster 00:51, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
ChaosMaster is an idiot. Not only did I wear an ear plug in my right ear while playing, so did the clarinetist sitting next to me in her left. The piccolo, when played correctly, is very loud (that's why you only need one) and the damage to your tympanic membrane is very real and very permanent. -- DKqwerty, 22 October 2007
[edit] Its name in Italian is "flauto piccolo"
Actually italian name for piccolo is "Ottavino". Maybe this is an ancient name in italian language. If it's so, it should be satated out. --ChemicalBit 11:16, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Notability?
Who is Todd Goodman? If he's a notable composer, why does he have no Wikipedia article yet?
65.213.77.129 (talk) 19:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
