NONET (MUSIC)

In music, a 'nonet' is a composition which requires nine musicians for a performance, or a musical group that consists of nine people. Unlike some other musical ensembles such as the string quartet, there is no established or standard set of instruments in a nonet. Composers of nonets often mix stringed instruments with winds, or woodwinds with brass, choosing the instruments so that each subgroup can form complete four-part harmony. For example, Franz Schubert's ''Eine kleine Trauermusik'' (1812) is for two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, and two trombones, while Louis Spohr's Nonet in F major (1813) and his contemporary George Onslow's op. 77 (1846), are for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Perhaps the most beautiful nonet—also in the Spohr-Onslow instrumentation—is Joseph Rheinberger's op. 139 in E-flat (1884); another work for such an ensemble is by Franz Lachner in F minor, composed in 1875. A later example is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 1894 work, also in F minor, for a similarly-constituted ensemble, with a piano replacing the flute. Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bohuslav Martinů, and Alois Hába are among the twentieth-century composers who have written nonets, with Hába accounting for four of them (opp. 40, 42, 82, and 97). Trumpeter Miles Davis also formed a Jazz nonet that was later known as "The Birth of the Cool".

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★ Chamber music