![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/SopraninoSax2.jpg/640px-SopraninoSax2.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Sopranino saxophone
Single-reed woodwind instrument / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sopranino saxophone is the second-smallest member of the saxophone family. It is tuned in the key of E♭, and sounds an octave higher than the alto saxophone. A sopranino in F was also described in Adolphe Sax's patent, an octave above an F alto (mezzo-soprano), but there are no known built instruments.[2]
![]() Orsi curved sopranino saxophone (c. 2000) | |
Woodwind instrument | |
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Classification | Single-reed |
Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.212-71 (Single-reed aerophone with keys) |
Inventor(s) | Adolphe Sax |
Developed | 1840s |
Playing range | |
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Related instruments | |
Sizes:
Orchestral saxophones: Specialty saxophones: | |
Musicians | |
See list of saxophonists | |
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The sopranino saxophone has a sweet sound and although it is one of the least common of the saxophones in regular use today, it is still being produced by saxophone manufacturers Orsi and Rampone & Cazzani in Italy, Henri Selmer Paris, and Yanagisawa of Japan.[1] Due to their small size, sopraninos are usually built straight like a clarinet, although Orsi make both straight and curved sopraninos, with the appearance of a miniature alto.[3]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/SopraninoSax2.jpg/320px-SopraninoSax2.jpg)
The original patented saxophone family, as developed by Adolphe Sax, included E♭ and B♭ saxophones in the voices of sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass, and subcontrabass instruments, and the same seven in the keys of C and F, though only the soprano, alto, and tenor were ever made.[2] Since the late 1990s the soprillo, an even smaller piccolo saxophone tuned in B♭ a fifth above the sopranino, was developed by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim.[4][5]
The sopranino saxophone is a transposing instrument, with the same written range as any saxophone, from B♭3 to at least F6. Sounding a minor third higher than written, like an E♭ clarinet or soprano cornet, this range corresponds to D♭4 to A♭6 in concert pitch.