The sopranino recorder is the second smallest recorder of the modern recorder family, and was the smallest before the 17th century. This modern instrument has F₅ as its lowest note, and its length is 20 cm. It is almost always made from soft European or tropical hardwoods, though sometimes it is also made of plastic. Yamaha Recorder YRN-814

Historically there were several sizes of recorder in this

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), ...

, named differently in different periods and in different languages. In his ''

Syntagma Musicum ''Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620)'' is a musical treatise in three volumes by the German composer, organist, and music theorist Michael Praetorius. It was published in Wittenberg and Wolfenbüttel. It is one of the most commonly used research source ...

'' (1619),

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and Music theory, music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of ...

describes this size of recorder, only a

whole tone In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more deta ...

higher, with G₅ as its lowest pitch. He calls it ''exilent'' (highest) in Latin, and ''kleine Flöte'' (small flute), ''klein Flötlein'' (small little flute), or ''gar klein'' (really small) in German. According to Praetorius, it is the smallest of eight sizes of recorder in a complete "''Accort'' oder Stimmwerk" (set of all voices), and sounds a ''quintadecima'' (a fifteenth—that is, two octaves) higher than a

cornett The cornett (, ) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are most ...

. Such a complete set includes a total of twenty-one instruments, including a pair of exilents, and two each of the two next larger sizes, ''Discantflöten'' in D₅ and C₅. However, Praetorius recommends restricting recorder ensembles to the five deepest sizes, because "die kleinen gar zu starck und laut schreien"—"the small ones scream so". The sopranino in G is most probably the instrument

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

calls for in ''

L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 318) (), or ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance music, Renaissance/early Baroque music, Baroque ''favola in musica'', or List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a li ...

'' (1607), by the name ''flautino alla vigesima seconda'' (little flute at the third octave). In 18th-century England, the sizes of recorder smaller than the treble in F (which was called simply "flute") were named according to their interval above it, and often were notated as transposing instruments. The descant (or soprano) on C was called a "fifth flute", the instrument a whole tone higher still was the "sixth flute" (on D), and what is known today as sopranino was the "octave flute".

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Further reading