# writing parts for a section



## crystaldrone

Hello,

I am an electric bass player and have a decent home studio and DAW. Recently there have been a lot of inquiries at the studio for providing complete orchestral pieces, mostly for commercial purposes.

I have made tracks consisting of keys, guitars, drums and have gotten somewhat confident in writing parts for those instruments. And of course bass. But being able to handle and assign parts for a large orchestra is going to require patience and help of experienced people here. Been reading up on the sizes of orchestra, and how composers decide how many first violins, how many seconds, how many violas, cellos etc. What I have been curious about is how to write effectively for 8 or 10 of the same instruments. 

For eg, if I have eight first and six second violins, should I think of the first violins as one monophonic instrument (playing in unison for a rich sound) and second violins as second monophonic instrument (playing in unison, but contrasting the first violins some way or the other), and thus creating polyphony? 
When we say the first violins playing in unison, does it mean that they are all sounding the same note, or different notes to make a eight note chord? Does harmonizing start right there? Or is it better to have eight violins play the same note on same octave for a rich sound and let the second violins harmonize?

I am having trouble figuring out which sections/sub sections play in unison and which sections harmonize. Or how are these tasks divided between a set of same instruments? A balance between doubling and harmonizing, or what double and what harmonizes? 

I know this is the are where composers experiment and try out things, but since I am so new to this, it would be great to have some starting points.

Any help will be appreciated. 

Thank you!


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## Vasks

crystaldrone said:


> For eg, if I have eight first and six second violins, should I think of the first violins as one monophonic instrument (playing in unison for a rich sound) and second violins as second monophonic instrument (playing in unison, but contrasting the first violins some way or the other), and thus creating polyphony?
> When we say the first violins playing in unison, does it mean that they are all sounding the same note, or different notes to make a eight note chord? Does harmonizing start right there? Or is it better to have eight violins play the same note on same octave for a rich sound and let the second violins harmonize?
> 
> I am having trouble figuring out which sections/sub sections play in unison and which sections harmonize. Or how are these tasks divided between a set of same instruments? A balance between doubling and harmonizing, or what double and what harmonizes?
> !


No matter how many Violin I players there are, they all play/read off of one part which is called Violin I. If you ever want to have half of them play one set of notes while the other half plays a different set of notes simultaneously then you write the word "divisi" where it starts and "unison" after the divided notes are done. Stems up for the divisi subdivision that's higher sounding and stems down for the divisi subdivision that's lower sounding. You treat Violin II the same way as I all explained above. Now sometimes Violin II will play in unison or in octaves with Violin I, but only once in a while; otherwise Violin II plays in harmony lower pitches than Violin I.

The rest is all up to you. Good luck.


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## crystaldrone

Thanks for such a precise answer vasks. Will definitely try playing around unison and divisi of different instruments. Though I was wondering if writing a divisi thins out the sound, since less players are playing the same note, and hence can be a good reason to have more players? Or can that give a good dynamic change?

Also, do all the sections and their instruments use or can use divisi? Like does a french horn section also do a divisi?

Much appreciated.


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## Vasks

crystaldrone said:


> I was wondering if writing a divisi thins out the sound, since less players are playing the same note, and hence can be a good reason to have more players? Or can that give a good dynamic change?
> 
> Also, do all the sections and their instruments use or can use divisi? Like does a french horn section also do a divisi?


A string part divided (except basses) does not significantly weaken the sound, but would only be so if many other non-strings are playing at the same time. When you have 4 Horns or 2 Clarinets or 3 Trombones, etc. you don't do a lot of unison or octave writing either. That means for example that the 4 horns would have 4 different notes many times while they play although if you only have a three-note chord one of them will double one of the 3 pitches (but probably an octave away from the other player with the same note). And remember (as an example) that Trombone I has the highest pitch of the 3 bones and Trombone III has the lowest.
You do not use the term "divisi" with non-strings. You simply take the instruments that are sharing a staff (say Clarinets I & II) and have #I higher pitches with stems up and #II lower pitches stems down (unless they have the exact same rhythm then they can share the stem)


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## GraemeG

Get yourself Vernon Handley's "Anatomy of the Orchestra".
Explains everything you want to know.
Everything.
cheers,
Graeme


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## crystaldrone

Hey thanks for the replies guys!

Will read up as much as I can.

And spend time here.


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