music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

, a blind octave is the alternate doubling above and below a successive

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

or trill notes: "the passage being played...alternately in the higher and lower octave." According to ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', the device is not to be introduced into the works of "older composers" (presumably those preceding

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

Alternately, a blind octave may occur "in a rapid octave passage when one

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...

of each alternate

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

is omitted."(June 1, 1907). ''The Musical Herald'', Issues 706-717, p.188. J. Curwen & Sons. The effect is to simulate

octave doubling In music theory, voicing refers to two closely related concepts: # How a musician or group distributes, or spaces, notes and chords on one or more instruments # The simultaneous vertical placement of notes in relation to each other; this rel ...

using a solo instrument.

References

Voicing (music) Musical terminology {{music-theory-stub