The piccolo heckelphone is a very rare woodwind instrument invented in 1905 by the firm of Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany. A variant of the heckelphone, the piccolo heckelphone was intended to add power to the very highest woodwind register of the late Romantic orchestra, providing a full and rich oboe-like sound well into the sopranino range. A transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fourth above the oboe,