User:DissonantVirtuoso/Octet (Mendelssohn)

The String Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20, was written during the fall of 1825 and completed on October 15 by Felix Mendelssohn when he was 16 years old. Written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos this work created a new genre in the world of chamber music. Because of this, the octet would be the piece that put Mendelssohn's name with other composers of his time and before him. (Christiansen) Conrad Wilson summarizes much of its reception ever since: "Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music." This was one of the first works of Mendelssohn that was received very well by the world.

Background
Mendelssohn wrote his octet and gave a signed score to his friend and violin teacher, Eduard Rietz as a birthday present. Rietz copied parts from the score to use for the premiere of the octet. The string octet was a fairly new genre of chamber music when Mendelssohn wrote his. At the time, the most widely-known genre of chamber music was the string quartet as it was rapidly gaining popularity among other composers in order to increase the amount of repertoire available for the still relatively new genre. When Mendelssohn composed his string octet it was a very new concept. Many people often think that Mendelssohn received inspiration from an earlier work written by composer and violinist Louis Spohr, his Double Quartet in D minor, op. 65 when writing his Octet. However, Louis Spohr's double quartet was written with the two separate string quartets playing apart from each other. Mendelssohn's octet has each performer playing more as an ensemble because it was written on a much bigger scales than anything written before it in the chamber music genre. In the score Mendelssohn wrote that the piece should "be played by all the instruments in the style of a symphony."