soprillo

• Name — Soprillo • Inventors — *Benedikt Eppelsheim • Robert van Linthout • Adolphe Sax • Developed — Late 1990s • Range — The soprillo in B sounds a minor seventh higher than written. • Builders — * Benedikt Eppelsheim • Musicians — * Attilio Berni • Jay C. Easton • Vinny Golia • Nigel Wood

Adolphe Sax's 1846 patent for the saxophone specified a family of saxophones in several sizes and pitches, ranging from the giant subcontrabass fr in B to the sopranino saxophone aigu in E or F. An instrument smaller and higher-pitched than the sopranino was described in method books published in the same year, before many sizes of saxophone were ever built. The 1846 saxophone methods by Jean-François-Barthélémy Cokken and Jean-Georges Kastner both provide transposition charts for seven sizes, starting with the saxophone sur aigu in C and B, an octave or minor seventh above concert pitch (although they omit the tenor size, and either the alto or baritone size). The first playable piccolo instrument was a prototype sopranissimo saxophone built in 1960, in B a fifth higher than the sopranino. It was hand-made by the Brussels-based maker Robert van Linthout in the familiar curved saxophone form with the bell pointing upwards, and measured barely 20 cm long. In 1998, the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim finished his first Piccolo-Saxophon (piccolo saxophone), also pitched in B and built with a straight body, like a typical soprano saxophone. He called it the soprillo, and exhibited it in Frankfurt along with his prototype tubax in March 1999.

The soprillo is pitched in B♭ and is the smallest saxophone, at 13 in long including the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece is non-removable, and the ligature, integrated into the instrument, is designed to fit the small reeds for the sopranino E♭ clarinet. Compared to a soprano saxophone, the soprillo is pitched one octave higher and is half its length. Constructing such a small saxophone presents several challenges. Most saxophones have keys for high F and F♯, but the soprillo only has keywork to high E♭. The small size of the soprillo means the upper octave key forms part of the mouthpiece. As of 2025 the Eppelsheim soprillo is the only piccolo-sized saxophone manufactured. They are expensive compared to other small saxophones; due to very limited demand, they are only built to order.