Violino piccolo

Violino piccolo (It.) (Ger. Quartgeige, Halbgeige), small violin tuned c1 g1 d2 a2, a 4th above the ordinary violin, and equivalent to the kleine Discantgeige of Praetorius. It must have existed by 1596, when an Ambras inventory enumerates 2 “claine Discant viole de braccio” as well as the soprano violin. Leopold Mozart writes (in 1756) that concerti had been written for the piccolo but that this was no longer necessary as “now” everything could be played on the ordinary violin in high…