The soprillo, also known as the piccolo saxophone or rarely sopranissimo saxophone, is the highest pitched and smallest

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

. The soprillo was developed as an extension to the saxophone family in the late 1990s by German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim, although a working prototype was made in 1960 in compact curved form. Pitched in B♭ and long, including the mouthpiece, the soprillo is one

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

above a

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...

and half its length.

History

Adolphe Sax's 1846 patent for the

specified a family of saxophones in several sizes and pitches, ranging from the giant subcontrabass in B♭ to the sopranino in E♭. The concept of another size of saxophone, even smaller and higher than the sopranino, was first realized in 1960 as a ''sopranissimo'' saxophone, in B♭ a fifth higher than the sopranino. Hand-made in curved form by Brussels-based maker Robert Vanlinthout, it measured barely long. In the late 1990s, German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim created a (), also pitched in B♭, in a longer straight form which he called the ''soprillo''.

Construction

The soprillo is pitched in B♭ and is long with the mouthpiece attached. Compared to a

, the soprillo is pitched one octave higher and is half the length. Constructing such a small saxophone presents several challenges. The keywork only extends to a written E♭₆ (sounding D♭₇) rather than F or F♯ like most saxophones, and the upper octave key has to be placed on the mouthpiece. The very small mouthpiece requires a correspondingly small reed and a tightly focused embouchure, making the soprillo difficult to play, particularly in its upper register. There is very little demand for soprillos, reducing the

economy of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in cost per un ...

and making the soprillo more expensive than more common saxophones like the

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

. The Eppelsheim soprillo is the only piccolo-sized saxophone manufactured.

Performance and repertoire

There is very little music written explicitly for the soprillo given its short history and extremely high pitch. British saxophonist Nigel Wood wrote and commissioned several solo soprillo works, performing and recording them for his 2008 CD, ''Soprillogy''. Saxophonists Vinny Golia, Jay C. Easton and Attilio Berni also perform and record on soprillo.

References

External links

* .
The World's Smallest Saxophone (YouTube)
– Jim Cheek from London's Sax Shop explains the soprillo in detail.
Nigel Wood Music
– information about the soprillo and the National Saxophone Choir of Great Britain. * Jay C. Easton'

– includes pictures and sound clips of his soprillo.

Listening

* The Benedikt Eppelshei
Soprillo
page, including audio clips. * Nigel Wood's
Soprillogy
' CD, dedicated to the soprillo. * Attilio Berni i
''Back Home Again Indiana'' (YouTube)
includes solos on the subcontrabass and soprillo (Saxophone Museum, Maccarese, 2020). {{authority control Saxophones B-flat instruments