6 key piccolo

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Drekth
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6 key piccolo

Post by Drekth »

I recently acquired a neat 6 key - 3 section piccolo (I think it may be ebony) - . I am in the process of refurbing it. But it is stamped/engraved with - 'WINTER - LINZ - Es' and I cannot find any references to this. Can any Forum Members throw any light on this please.
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by Dan A. »

I did a little Googling, and could possibly be of some help. Linz is a city in Austria; perhaps your piccolo was made there. Curiously, "ES" (in modern usage, anyway) could connote España...Spain. The only guess I'd have about "Winter" is that it could be the maker's name. Are any other markings present?
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Peter Duggan
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by Peter Duggan »

Es is German for Eb.
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

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Dan A.
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by Dan A. »

So key of Eb?
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Terry McGee
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by Terry McGee »

The New Langwill Index (now getting a little old) reports two entries for Winter in Linz, both late 19th century and both relating to brass instruments. An Eb piccolo would play easily in the same keys as military brass....
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plunk111
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by plunk111 »

If it's in Eb, wouldn't it be called a fife?
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Terry McGee
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Re: 6 key piccolo

Post by Terry McGee »

It's long been an argument of nomenclature, I think Pat. Anthony Baines raises it in his 1957 book Woodwind Instruments and their History, and calls the conical instrument the Eb piccolo and the simple cylindrical instrument the fife. "A barack-room instrument".

(I met Baines in Oxford in 1974, when I was directed there by Philip Bate to see his collection, having been taken around to meet Philip by Paul Davies. Having previously run into Tony Bingham a few days earlier at "The Sign of the Serpent". Giants walked the land in those days....)
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