Mendelssohn finished the Octet on October 15, 1825, when he was sixteen. It was a birthday present for Eduard Rietz, his violin teacher and friend, who was given the autograph score. He later revised it, and the version usually played today is the one published in 1832.
Mendelssohn may have had Spohr’s Double Quartet, Op. 65, in mind, but there the two quartets play as separate groups; here all eight players form one ensemble. He asked for it to be played in a symphonic, orchestral style, with louds and softs sharper than usual. His sister Fanny linked the scherzo to a passage in Goethe’s Faust. Snatches of it come back in the finale, which opens with an eight-part fugato that borrows a line from Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus.
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