Sextet
A work for six players.
What it means
A sextet is a work for six soloistically scored parts and at the same time the performing ensemble. The most widespread scoring is the string sextet of two violins, two violas, and two cellos; alongside it stand wind sextets, mixed scorings with piano or with winds and strings, as well as vocal sextets. In opera the term designates an ensemble for six singing voices.
Musical use
The string sextet expands the quartet by one viola and one cello each and thereby gains a darker, fuller middle register. This allows a texture that seems almost orchestral without losing the transparency of chamber music; at the same time the voices can be divided into two groups that stand opposite each other. Among the best-known string sextets are the two by Johannes Brahms, in B-flat major, op. 18, and in G major, op. 36, Arnold Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, op. 4 (1899), and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, op. 70. Mixed sextets with winds, by contrast, use the contrast of colours. In opera the ensemble serves to let several characters speak at once without halting the plot — the voices express different attitudes to the same situation. A famous example is “Chi mi frena in tal momento” in the second act of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (Naples, 1835).
Performance practice
Arrange the seating so that everyone hears one another; with six players this is not self-evident. Rehearse in subgroups, for instance three at a time or as a quartet with the two additional voices, before bringing everyone together. Fix entries and tempo changes explicitly, since it is usually played without a leader. In operatic ensembles it holds: clarity of text and rhythm before individual shaping.
The fifth and sixth voices make the texture denser: what seems transparent in a quartet can blur in a sextet, because the reinforced middle register binds a great deal of sound. Arrange the balance carefully, therefore, leave room for the upper voice, and listen deliberately to whichever voice is leading. Check whether a part is divided in the score, because the number of players needed follows from that.