The piccolo heckelphone is a very rare woodwind instrument invented in 1905 by the firm of Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany.
[citation needed] A transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fourth above the oboe,[1] its written range is from B3 to E6,[1] though it can reach tones as much as a third above this.
Richard Strauss, who scored for the heckelphone on a number of occasions, was an early enthusiast of the piccolo heckelphone, even using it in a performance of Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto, where it played the solo trumpet part in the final movement.
Furthermore, with the trend toward economical orchestration following the excesses of the Romantic period, massive sonorities and (by extension) instruments capable of cutting through quadruple wind sections became much less necessary.
rumors have circulated that Heckel is planning on bringing the piccolo heckelphones in F and E♭ back into production on a limited basis.