John Novacek’s Music For 8: A Personal Journey

The String Octet is a relatively rare ensemble in music. Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859) wrote the first “Double Quartet” in 1823 and three more in the years that followed. Spohr, although little-known today, was among the most famous musicians of his generation. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) produced his youthful masterpiece octet in 1825, and it proved to be a tough act to follow. George Enescu, Max Bruch, and Dmitri Shostakovich each wrote string octets, but they are played relatively rarely compared with the dazzling and ever-popular Mendelssohn.

It’s too bad that we don’t hear these pieces more often, and it’s too bad that more composers don’t pick up a pen to expand the canon. String octets are a unique halfway point between the most intimate string quartet experience and the full-blown chamber orchestra effect.

In late 2024, I first heard about a forthcoming string octet by John Novacek. Music for 8 was a co-commission by the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Festival Mozaic, the Schubert Club, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and would be.premiered at all four co-commissioning venues. John and I are both faculty members at the Colorado College Festival, and I would be part of the premiere ensemble to play his piece there in June of 2025. Given the quality of the faculty in Colorado and my profound admiration for John’s music, I was excited to be part of a group of virtuoso colleagues performing a new piece that could become a new staple in the repertoire.

The annual faculty at the Colorado College festival has remained more or less constant for many years. There is a deep sense of friendship and musical trust within that faculty, which includes a number of nationally and internationally successful artists like John. We know one another and feel collectively fortunate to have the chance to work together each June. We all share a collective admiration for the quality of John’s compositions and his brilliant musicianship. There is also a collective awareness that John’s highly imaginative music can place ferocious harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and technical demands on performers.

Excitement built among us as we waited for our parts for Music for 8 to arrive in early 2025. The normal apprehension accompanying the preparation for any premiere was amplified in this case, as we waited for this new work from a much-admired colleague who writes infamously challenging music. All of us sensed that John would come up with something dazzling to hear AND dazzlingly tricky to navigate!

When parts arrived in the spring, it was clear that Music for 8 was technically challenging, as anticipated. The principal difficulty lay not in the execution of the parts themselves, but rather in the coordination between the parts. It may come as a surprise to some that often what is difficult in ensemble playing is not so much constant playing as interlocking material in which performers take turns playing and waiting. It turns out that navigating silence is one of the most challenging aspects of conductorless performance. Music for 8 is full of rapid-fire interlocking material punctuated by rests in the individual parts. The composite effect is thrilling when it works, but can be perilous for the performers trying to pick up the rhythm from one another. A miss on any one of the numerous musical exchanges can derail the whole group!

Happily, this performance on June 19th, 2025 was a success, as have been the other premieres since. The piece is fresh and brilliant, the kind of music that makes the audience move in their chairs!

As we might have hoped, Music for 8 is already gaining wide acceptance across the US. This time around, I’ll be an attentive spectator when the NEXUS Chamber Music Festival brings Music for 8 to Guarneri Hall on August 13th and 14th.

Come join us for this full program of string octets, and be sure to stay for the reception to chat with the performers about their experience performing this brilliant new piece.