Blind octave

The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

In music, a blind octave is the alternate doubling above and below a successive scale or trill notes: "the passage being played...alternately in the higher and lower octave."^[1] According to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the device is not to be introduced into the works of "older composers" (presumably those preceding Liszt).^[2]

Alternately, a blind octave may occur "in a rapid octave passage when one note of each alternate octave is omitted."^[3] The effect is to simulate octave doubling using a solo instrument.

References

^ Apel, Willi (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music, p.97. ISBN 978-0-674-37501-7.
^ Sir George Grove, ed. (1910). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 3, p.735. The Macmillan Company.
^ (June 1, 1907). The Musical Herald, Issues 706-717, p.188. J. Curwen & Sons.

This music theory article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] Apel, Willi (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music, p.97. ISBN 978-0-674-37501-7.

[2] Sir George Grove, ed. (1910). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 3, p.735. The Macmillan Company.

[3] (June 1, 1907). The Musical Herald, Issues 706-717, p.188. J. Curwen & Sons.

[1]