In music, a blind octave is the alternate doubling above and below a successive scale or trill notes: "the passage being played...alternately in the higher and lower octave."Apel, Willi (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music, p.97. . 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).Sir George Grove, ed. (1910). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 3, p.735. The Macmillan Company.
Alternately, a blind octave may occur "in a rapid octave passage when one note of each alternate octave is omitted."(June 1, 1907). The Musical Herald, Issues 706-717, p.188. J. Curwen & Sons. The effect is to simulate octave doubling using a solo instrument.
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