Coll'ottava
Coll'ottava, Italian for “with the octave”, is a performance instruction: the written notes are played or sung together with the octave above or below, depending on whether the instruction is written above or below the staff. The notation stays unchanged; the doubling is only a direction for performance.
- Meaning
- also play the octave
- Notation
- coll'8 or coll'ottava, with a dashed line
- Above the staff
- octave higher added
- Below the staff
- octave lower added
One octave in addition
The instruction is written as the added word coll'8 or coll'ottava over or under the passage concerned, often with a dashed line that shows how long it applies. It ends with a cancelling sign or at the end of the dashed line. The player adds the octave to each written note, either above or below.
Notated: a single melodic line
This is how the passage is notated. Above or below it is the instruction coll'ottava.
Performed with coll'ottava (octave higher added)
Each notated note also sounds an octave higher. One line becomes two parallel lines an octave apart.
In the glossary: Octave · Parallel octaves · Ledger line
Contrast with 8va
Unlike the related signs 8va (play an octave higher) or 8va bassa (play an octave lower), which replace the original note, coll'ottava adds the extra octave without replacing the written note. That is the decisive difference, which is easily confused in practice.
What it is for
Coll'ottava is used to strengthen a voice in sound or to give it more fullness and carrying power. In the orchestra a melody then sounds in several octave registers at once, in piano writing a passage can sound fuller. It is a deliberate octave doubling. It differs from the unintentional parallel octaves of harmony teaching in that two-part writing is not wanted here.
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Related terms
OctaveParallel octavesLedger lineStaff linesUnison
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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