Octet, or Ottett

OCTET, or OTTETT (Ottetto), a composition for eight solo instruments. It differs from a double quartet, such as those of Spohr, as that master explains in his Autobiography (ii. 153); the eight instruments working together independently, and not in two bodies—just as in the case of a composition for eight voices compared with one for two choirs or double chorus. Mendelssohn's Octet for strings is a splendid example. [See Mendelssohn, 258 b.] So is Schubert's, for 2 violins,...