Story of the Flute
platitudes and stupidity. The piccolo may, however, have a very happy effect in soft passages, and it is a mere prejudice to think that it should only be played loud." Examples of most effective use of the piccolo pianissimo will be found in Beethoven's Turkish March in the Ruins of Athens, and in Schumann's Faust (ii. 5), where it is so used on its highest register. It absolutely lacks the poetic sweetness of the flute. The lower notes are feeble, dull, and devoid of any particular character; the middle register is the best, whilst the upper notes are harsh and piercing, the very top ones being almost unbearably so. There is very little real musical tone to be got out of the instrument—it is, in fact, nothing but a glorified tin-whistle. Nevertheless, it has its uses: an occasional sudden flash on the piccolo is very thrilling, and it can create certain piquant effects and accentuate brilliant points in the score better than any other member of the orchestra.
The chief vocation of the piccolo is to reproduce the noises of the elements of nature, the strident howling of the tempest, the flash of the lightning, the torrent of the rain. There is something diabolic and mocking in its upper notes; hence it has been employed by many dramatic composers to typify infernal revelry and satanic orgies. Marschner uses two piccolos in his Le Vampire and Gounod and Berlioz both introduce it along with Mephistopheles in their respective Fausts. So, too, Sullivan, in The Golden Legend heralds the approach of Lucifer by a lightning flash on the piccolo.
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