# Divided violins or all on one side?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

What are the pluses and minuses of these 2 set ups,
and what's your opinion on them.
I like the sound of Klemperers recordings and I think he used divided violins.
I know all on one side is the norm now.
What do you think?
thanks


----------



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Klemperer used divided violins. His Beethoven seventh symphony shows this to good effect in the allegretto, as does Kleiber's.


----------



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Klemperer used divided violins. His Beethoven seventh symphony shows this to good effect in the allegretto, as does Kleiber's.


I know. I said I liked the sound of that.


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

It doesn't really matter that much to me. Some finicky music critics ,such as Andrew Porter ,
are sticlklers for divided violins and whenever he would review a concert for the New Yorker 
magazine and the violins were not divided ,he would get his panties in a bunch . Does he really
wear panties ? Maybe . 
Not all orchestral works have prominent passages with antiphonal entrances by the violins ,
but quite a few do . There are also antiphonal passages between the violins ,cellos and basses etc .,
Today , no period instrument orchestra would dream of not dividing the vioilins ; this just isn't
politically correct ,but more and more conductors of mainstream orchestras have been opting
for divided violins ,for instance Alan Gilbert when he took over from Maazel at the NY Phil .
According to reports , when Dohnanyi was music director in Cleveland , he decided to 
switch to divided violins , but the members or both sections hated it for some reason .
They were accustomed to being together , and it apparently took some getting used to .
Different seating plans work better or worse in different concert halls because of the acoustics .
This has long been known to be a fact, and it applies not only to strings ,but woodwinds,brass
andpercussion .


----------



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

When it comes to recordings I much prefer Divided, especially when wearing headphones. The sound is so much fuller and I tend to hear more details, especially when listening to Klemperer. From what I understand Klemperer's strings were seated in an arc: First Violins, Basses, Cellos, Violas, Second Violins. I don't know how much the engineering of Walter Legge at EMI played into it, but the clarity and fullness of the sound is absolutely heavenly. It might not be as noticeable in a car or something but as I said in my first statement, boy it sounds great with headphones.


----------



## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

Check the repertoire. The Viennese tradition was divided violins, so pretty well everyone from Beethoven to Mahler wrote for an orchestra thus seated. You can usually see from the score what the composer expected.
I think the conductor should see (from left to right) 1sts, cello&bass, viola, 2nds. I think you needs a good reason to deviate from this.
I never quite understood how collecting all the violins together on one side ever caught hold, quite frankly.
cheers,
GG


----------



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

As long as they are not playing unison most of the time, better divided.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Interesting article about the issue.

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/entertainment/article.jsp?content=20080423_115456_115456&page=1



> Jacques Israelievitch, current concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which mostly keeps the violins together, explains that a large orchestra with divided violins "has difficulties hearing from one violin section to the other, because of the distance, so the ensemble suffers. It is more difficult to play perfectly together, and frustrating to the players." So until recently, most orchestras kept all violins on the left, providing a rich sound but losing the crucial back-and-forth effects in violin-heavy pieces like Wagner's prelude to Tristan Und Isolde.


----------



## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

The firsts really are an independent line. In general, the seconds spend more time playing with the violas than they do the firsts. The whole point of having 1st and 2nd violins is that they _don't_ play together most of the time.
That's the way the pieces were written. That's the way they should be played.
GG


----------



## MrCello (Nov 25, 2011)

I prefer divided, but most orchestras I've played in have always had the celli on the right.


----------



## Guest (Mar 4, 2014)

Divided...

I can picture the whole lot toppling over if they're all on one side!


----------

