sextet (Fr. sextette or sextuor; It. sestetto; Ger. Sextett). Performing group of 6 instrumentalists or singers, or work written for them to perform, e.g. Brahms's str. sextets. Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (1899) was orig. a str. sextet. Janáček's Mládí (1924) is a wind sextet. Strauss's opera Capriccio (1940–1) opens with a str. sextet. The most famous operatic sextet is the Act II finale of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), ‘Chi mi frena in tal momento’.

sex·tet / sekˈstet/ (also sex·tette) • n. a group of six people playing music or singing together. ∎  a composition for such a group. ∎  a set of six people or things: a sextet of new releases.