Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/105

 The piccolo seems to have first appeared in the orchestra about 1700. Destouches and Lalande in The Elements (c. 1721) have two little flutes. Rameau used one in his overture Acanthe and Céphise (1751) and two in his Pigmalion (1748). Haydn uses it once (Spring), and Gluck introduces it in several of his operas. Beethoven was the first to introduce it into a symphony.

In the orchestra the piccolo is as a rule played by the second flute-player, unless when played along with both flutes. A question has been raised as to whether piccolo playing is injurious to the tone of a flute-player, the embouchure being so different. Certainly the great piccolo-players, such as Frisch (c. 1840), Harrington Young, Le Thière, Roe, etc., did not shine very preeminently as flute-players. The French excel as piccoloists.

The piccolo is the noisiest and least refined in tone of the whole orchestra, and is apt to give a tinge of vulgarity if injudiciously introduced—as it too often is. It is, in fact, in all respects the most abused instrument: abused by composers, players, and audiences alike. Berlioz says: "When I hear this instrument employed in doubling in triple octave the air of a baritone, or casting its squeaking voice into the midst of a religious harmony, or strengthening or sharpening (for the sake of noise only) the high part of an orchestra from beginning to end of an act of an opera, I cannot help feeling that this mode of instrumentation is one of