Possible Clues:

• Large jazz combos
• Fair-sized musical groups
• They'll never be one over the eight
• Some large jazz ensembles
• Ate all the parts of them, by the sound of it
• Works with many strings, maybe
• Partly ate them, by the sound of it
• Milkmaids in song and Santa's 5, for example
• groups of eight, say singers
• Good-sized chamber ensembles