[5] Built initially in a long linear form with three piston valves, by the early 20th century it was mostly made with the more compact wrap of modern C and B♭ trumpets.

[6] The trumpet in D was called for by several composers, including Stravinsky (The Rite of Spring, Petrushka), Ravel (Boléro), and Britten (Peter Grimes).

[9] The instrument enables players to play the difficult high trumpet parts of Baroque music, such as Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto and Mass in B minor.

The piccolo trumpet solo in the Beatles' "Penny Lane", which introduced the instrument to pop music, was played by David Mason.

Maurice André, Otto Sauter, Guy Touvron, Reinhold Friedrich, Adolf Scherbaum, Ludwig Güttler, Wynton Marsalis, Matthias Höfs and Håkan Hardenberger are some well-known piccolo trumpet players.