A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nonet

by William Smyth Rockstro

NONET (Ital. Nonetto). A Composition, written for nine Voices, or Instruments.

A Vocal Nonet is rarely called into existence, without some special raison d'être. For instance, in the Polyphonic Schools, it not unfrequently results from the union of two Choirs, one for five, and the other for four Voices, as in the case of Allegri's celebrated Miserere: while, in Operatic Music, it becomes a self-evident necessity, whenever nine Characters are brought upon the Stage, either together, or in succession, during the course of a continuous series of movements, as in the Finale to the first Act of 'Die Zauberflöte.'

Among the few Instrumental Nonets, produced since the time of Mozart, the first place must unquestionably be accorded to Spohr's delightful Op. 31, for Stringed and Wind Instruments combined.

[ W. S. R. ]