Piccolo music is one of those things that I never really learned to find in college. Piccolo always seemed to be that instrument that got the loud trills and runs in orchestra or band.
But there is a whole world of solo piccolo repertoire that is waiting to be loved by newcomers to the instrument's virtuosic side. These pieces show how flexible the piccolo can be in style and technical ability, and how varied instrumentation can be! (Check out that alarm clock piece further down!)
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Piccolodeon by Adrienne Albert
"Piccolodeon is a duet for piccolo and piano that expresses the mood and sonority of the “nickelodeon,” an early 20th-century arcade instrument used for silent movies, carousels, and vaudeville theater. The piece begins as a playful ragtime with the instruments in sync. Gradually, the ensemble unravels to the point where it’s a toss-up as to which player is off. This musical gem is full of surprise and delight!"
Wake Up! by Tilmann Dehnhard
"Please feel free to regard this piece as an improvisational mainframe for your own performance version. The main objective is to stay in time, i.e. not to lose the alarm clock’s rhythm. Repeat the patterns ad lib and invent new ones. Groove away and have fun!" - Tilmann Dehnhard
On Wings of Song by Eric Ewazen
"On Wings of Song" Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra or Wind Ensemble. Reduction for Piccolo and Piano (Piccolo and Piano) by Eric Ewazen (b. 1954), written in 2010. Dedicated to Jan Gippo.
I. Over Distant Murmuring Waves
II. Under Serene Moonlight
III. All Eartly Cares Entwining
IV. Shall Fade Away in Dreams
Hall of Ghosts by Amanda Harberg
"HALL OF GHOSTS was composed in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown period; it was inspired by piccoloist Gudrun Hinze’s video for Harberg’s Prayer Project filmed in the hauntingly empty Gewandhaus Chamber Music Hall. Evocative of imagined spirits in the empty hall, the music pits dramatic silences, amid searching and plaintive phrases of the piccolo, against a lively middle section – a dialogue between the ticking of time and an instrument striving to make itself heard."
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