> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Darcy James Argue > Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:06 PM > To: Fin > Subject: Re: [Finale] Divisi > > Will it really cause that much confusion to divide the violins three ways > instead of two? Doesn't this happen often enough in the standard rep that > everyone knows what to do? > > - Darcy
"Div. a 3" isn't that uncommon from Debussy onward, WITHIN a Vln. I or II section. Dividing the aggregate violins into thirds is quite rare, and I assure you that nobody will know what "div. 2:1" means without further explanation. The real issue is a logistic one: how does an individual player know which part to play? Normal divisi is always played inside/outside, which is a no-brainer, while div. a 3 or higher is usually divided by stand (and written on separate staves), so it's not immediately obvious which part to play, but not too hard to figure out. If I'm looking at a part that somehow clearly calls for 2/3 of the section to play one line and 1/3 to play another, how do I know which group I'm in? This will inevitably take rehearsal time to work out. It also seems unnecessarily fussy, particularly for a short passage. Since the first violin section is normally a little larger than the second, I would divide the firsts in two and put all the seconds on the "2/3" line. No uncertainty or wasted rehearsal time, and numerically will achieve very close to the ratio you want (in an orchestra with a typical complement of 16 1sts and 14 2nds, you would get a 73/27 split). -Lee _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
