Octet (Mendelssohn)
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Felix Mendelssohn's Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 was composed in the fall of 1825, when the composer was at the young age of 16.
The work is comprised of four movements:
- Allegro moderato con fuoco
- Andante
- Scherzo
- Presto
A typical performance of the work lasts around thirty minutes, with the first movement usually comprising roughly half of this.
The scherzo, later scored for orchestra as a replacement for the minuet in the composer's First Symphony at its premiere, is believed to have been inspired by a section of Goethe's Faust entitled "Walpurgis Night's Dream."[1] Fragments of this movement recur in the finale, as a precursor to the "cyclic" technique employed by later 19th-century composers. The entire work is also notable for its extended use of counterpoint, with the finale, in particular, beginning with an eight-part fugato.
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[edit] Instrumentation
The original score is for a double string quartet with 4 violins and pairs of violas and cellos. The most common alteration to the instrumentation is the use of multiple players for each part; although, a version edited by Arturo Toscanini exists that employs double basses. This arrangement was made for performance with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1947.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- String Octet was available at the International Music Score Library Project.
[edit] References
- ^ Program notes from a concert at the Kennedy Center
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