Octet (music)

In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble. Octets in classical music are one of the largest groupings of chamber music. Although eight-part scoring was fairly common for serenades and divertimenti in the 18th century, the word "octet" only first appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, as the title of a composition by Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, whose Octet Op. 12 (published posthumously in 1808) features the piano, together with clarinet, 2 horns, 2 violins, and 2 cellos. Later octets with piano were written by Ferdinand Ries (Op. 128, 1818, with clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass), Anton Rubinstein (Op. 9, 1856, with flute, clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass), and Paul Juon (Chamber Symphony, Op. 27, 1907) . Octets tend to be scored in one of the following arrangements: String octet – This arrangement is made up entirely of strings. Felix Mendelssohn's Octet Op. 20 is an example, as are the octets of George Enescu, Dmitri Shostakovich, Niels Gade, Carl Schuberth, Johan Svendsen, Carl Grädener, Joachim Raff, Woldemar Bargiel, Hermann Graedener, Reinhold Glière, Ferdinand Thieriot, Max Bruch, and Airat Ichmouratov. Double quartet – Double quartets are made up of two string quartets, often arranged antiphonally. Louis Spohr composed four such octets between 1823 and 1847 (opp. 65, 77, 87 and 136), taking as a model a work by Andreas Romberg. Later examples in this mode include works by Nikolay Afanasyev (Housewarming and Le souvenir) and Mario Peragallo (Music for Double Quartet, 1948), as well as Darius Milhaud's paired 14th and 15th String Quartets Op. 291 (1948–49), which are composed to be playable simultaneously as an octet . Cello octet – Eight cellos, a combination popularized by Heitor Villa-Lobos in his Bachianas Brasileiras nos. 1 (1930) and 5 (1938/1945), though technically these are for "cello orchestra" with a minimum of eight players.