A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Septet
SEPTET (Fr. Septuor; Ital. Septetto). A composition for seven instruments or voices, with or without accompaniment.
There is no instance, among the works of the great composers, of a septet for strings only, though there are several octets (Mendelssohn, Bargiel, Raff, Gade, Svendsen, etc.). Beethoven's famous Septet for Strings and Wind naturally heads the list, and Hummel's for Piano, Strings, and Wind is the next best known, though far inferior to Spohr's difficult and brilliant work for a similar combination (op. 147). The great paucity of instrumental septets is probably owing to the fact that wind instruments are too full and powerful in tone to sound well with single strings, or even the piano. A striking instance of this incompatibility is accorded by Saint-Saëns' recently produced Septet for Piano, Strings and Trumpet; but, truth to say, whenever we hear even Beethoven's Septet or Schubert's Octet, we hare the impression of an exceedingly feeble orchestra, and yearn for the proper fulness of string power, albeit these works are not in the least orchestral.
Operatic situations have seldom given rise to, or opportunity for, vocal septets, but the magnificent specimen in the last act of Goetz's 'Taming of the Shrew' deserves foremost mention, and as a unique thing of its kind we may also point to the scene (Act iii, Scene 2) in Wagner's 'Die Walküre,' where occur several short pieces for female voices in seven-part harmony with entirely independent accompaniment.