Octet in F major, D. 803

Schubert composed this six-movement octet in March 1824 at the request of the clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer, who asked for a work comparable to Beethoven's Septet, Op. 20; Schubert accepted the brief but expanded the ensemble by adding a second violin to give a full string quartet alongside the three winds. It came from the same concentrated burst of chamber writing that produced the 'Rosamunde' and 'Death and the Maiden' string quartets, and in a letter Schubert counted it among the works through which he hoped to find a path toward large-scale symphonic writing. The result sits between a divertimento and something more searching, its generous span allowing moods to shift gradually rather than dramatically.

What to listen for

The fourth movement is a set of variations on a song-like theme Schubert had written nine years earlier for his singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanka; the clarinet states it first in a plain, melodic manner while the strings provide a light pizzicato accompaniment, and successive variations then redistribute the material among different pairings of winds and strings so the texture keeps opening and closing. Elsewhere, a dotted rhythmic figure introduced in the slow Adagio introduction to the first movement recurs across later movements, giving a loose sense of narrative continuity; many listeners hear these returns as the octet quietly tying its many episodes back to a common thread.

Recommended rendition

The Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, a group formed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, has been frequently cited for their long association with this work.

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