Another classic piece from Steve Reich – here presented with a retrospective of the paintings of Jackson Pollock. Scored for 2 pianos, 2 woodwinds (various) and string quartet. Form is always key in Reich’s work. Here’s the 5-part ‘master plan’ for ‘Octet’:

It’s a fairly hairy piece for just 8 players to pull off, so Reich later rescored it for additional players to reduce the ‘work load’ somewhat and to make it more accessible to non-virtuosi (ie: students). That version is identical to ‘Octet’ note-wise and is called ‘Eight Lines’.