sopraninon.adj.

1964 S. Marcuse Musical Instruments (1966) 485/2 The sopranino in D was in use in 18th- and 19th-century orchestras.

1968 Observer 19 May (Colour Suppl.) 40/5 His nice Irish wife..warms up the sopraninas (very small recorders) by cradling them inside her blouse.

1977 Times 27 May 16/4 A new type of violin, the 11¼ in sopranino, with strings of such high tension that when they were first used in the United States, the player wore protective goggles in case they snapped.

1907 T. S. Wotton Dict. Mus. Terms 185 Sopranino, the diminutive of Soprano, a term applied to an instrument of higher pitch than that defined as soprano.

1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 785/2 The ‘Flauto Piccolo’ of Handel in Acis and Galatea is the little sopranino recorder, an octave above the treble one (or possibly the flageolet was used).

1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 832/1 Sopranino Saxhorn in E Flat (or F): also called Soprano Saxhorn; also often miscalled Soprano Flügelhorn or Flügelhorn Piccolo.

1939 A. Carse Mus. Wind Instruments xiii. 177 Each group [of saxophones] was in seven sizes... 1. Sopranino..2. Soprano [etc.].

1954 Grove's Dict. Music (ed. 5) VIII. 804/2 A small sopranino viol was evolved, called a pardessus de viole, which was in all respects a true viol, but suited to a tuning a fourth above the treble.

1964 S. Marcuse Musical Instruments (1966) 485/2 Sopranino clarinet, clarinet pitched between the ordinary C clarinet and the piccolo clarinet in high A♭.