Piccolos are now only manufactured in the key of C; however, they were once also available in D. It was for this D piccolo that John Philip Sousa wrote the famous solo in the final repeat of the closing section (trio) of his march "The Stars and Stripes Forever".

In the orchestral setting, the piccolo player is often designated as Piccolo/Flute III or even Assistant Principal. The larger orchestras have designated this position as a Solo position due to the demands of the literature. Piccolos are often orchestrated to double (i.e., to play together with) the violins or the flutes, adding sparkle and brilliance to the overall sound because of the aforementioned one-octave transposition upwards.

Concertos have been composed for piccolo, including those by Lowell Liebermann, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Todd Goodman, Martin Amlin, Will Gay Bottje, Bruce Broughton, Valentino Bucchi, Avner Dorman,, Jean Doué, Michael Easton, Egil Hovland, Guus Janssen, Tilo Medek, Dexter Morrill, Raymond Niverd, Daniel Pinkham, Thomas Schudel, and Allan Stephenson. Graham Waterhouse composed a Quintet for Piccolo and String Quartet.

Traditional use

The piccolo was originally made of wood and was featured in many prominent composers' works. One of the earliest pieces to use the piccolo was Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, playing only during the final (IV) movement. Today, piccolos are made from a range of materials, including plastic, resin, brass, nickel silver, silver, and a variety of hardwoods, most commonly grenadilla. Finely made piccolos are often available with a variety of options similar to the flute, such as the split-E mechanism. Most piccolos have a conical body with a cylindrical head, which is like the Baroque flute and later flutes before the popularization of the Boehm bore used in modern flutes. Unlike other woodwind instruments, in most wood piccolos the tenon joint connecting the head to the body has two interference fit points which surround both the cork and metal side of the piccolo body joint.

Bibliography

References

External links

Category:Flutes

Claudio Baglioni (born 16 May 1951) is an Italian musician. His various works include the official Anthem for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin. He has also written for previous sporting events.

His musical career began in 1965 when he entered a competition for new talents in the Rome district of Centocelle. Between 1965 and 1968 he composed a musical suite to a poem by Edgar Allan Poe entitled ''Annabel Lee'', made a test recording for RCA, released his first album ''Claudio Baglioni''. In 1969, he entered the ''Disco per l'estate'' competition with the song ''Una favola blu'' and the ''Festivalbar'' competition with ''Signora Lia''. The following year, Baglioni released his first album ''Claudio Baglioni'', which didn't sell well and was retired from the market a few weeks after initial release.

Following the release of his second album ''Un cantastorie dei giorni nostri'' in 1972, he made the big-time with ''Questo piccolo grande amore''. He set off for his first tour in 1973, the year of ''Gira che ti rigira amore bello''. On 4 August 1973, he married Paola Massari. In 1974 he produced ''E tu'' in Paris in collaboration with Vangelis and in 1975 ''Sabato pomeriggio'' with arrangements by Luis Enriquez Bacalov. In 1977 he released ''Solo'' and began a tour of the United States and Canada. 1978 was the year of ''E tu come stai?'', released by his new record company CBS.

In 1981 he produced the hugely successful album ''Strada facendo'' and gave a series of concerts in the palasport buildings. For the birth of his son Giovanni, in 1982, he composed ''Avrai'', a song dedicated to his newborn son Giovanni, and set off for the highly acclaimed ''Alé-oó'' tour, which spawned an album of the same name. In 1985 he produced ''La vita è adesso'' and the following year set off for the ''Assolo'' tour, a three-hour tour-de-force of vocals, guitar and piano. After two years of work, he released ''Oltre'', an album which included the participation of numerous illustrious names from the international music world, such as Paco De Lucia, Pino Daniele, Mia Martini, Youssu N'Dour, Phil Palmer, Tony Levin and others.

From then until 1994 he went on a series of tours around Italy. In 1995 he produced ''Io sono qui'', followed by the ''Tour Rosso'' in palasport buildings. In the summer of 1998 his dream of holding concerts in the main Italian stadiums came true. In 1999 he released the album ''Viaggiatore sulla coda del tempo''.

In 2003, Baglioni released a new album, ''Sono io, l'uomo della storia accanto'', and won the Lunezia Prize. ''Crescendo e cercando'' and ''Tutti qui - Collezione dal 1967 al 2005'' followed two years later.

In 2006 he released for Columbia Records the album ''Quelli degli altri: Tutti qui''.

In 2009, worked on a movie based on themes from his songs movie. The double-disc soundtrack album Q.P.G.A features full-length versions performed together with other famous musicians like Andrea Bocelli, Laura Pausini and Irene Grandi. Baglioni also wrote a novella. In Italy the album is 3X platinum with more of 180,000 copies sold.

In 2010 Baglioni went on a series of tours around the world. After that, he released a new album, ''Per il mondo. World Tour 2010''.

External links

Category:1951 births Category:Italian pop singers Category:Living people Category:Italian conductors (music) Category:Italian male singers Category:Italian singer-songwriters Category:Italian composers Category:Italian-language singers