I have a potentially dumb question that I’m having trouble wrapping my head around, would appreciate someone’s advice here!
I’ve come across a situation where I need to have the entire string section - not just Violin I or Violin II, but both - divided 3 ways for a section. An example on the score I’m working with, I have 28 total violin players - 14 in Violin I, 14 in Violin II - that need to be split up into 9, 9, and 10. If I divide Violin I into 9+9, I end up with more players (18) than are actually in the Violin I section (14).
Is there an elegant way to handle this? Curious to hear how others would approach this!
Don’t think numbers, think parts. You want 9+9+10 across V1 and V2. That sounds to me like V1 is split in two (9+5) and V2 is split in two (9+5) but the 2nd part of each is playing the same music, so a simple 2 part divisi in both V1 and V2 is sufficient. You can easily label each as 9 and 5 respectively and leave it to the players to decide exactly who is playing which line.
Check out the slow movement of Shostakovich Symphony No.5.
He handles the identical issue by providing both Violin I and II with all three parts, and then leaves it to the concertmaster or conductor to assign who plays what.
For studio work, Violins I & II are often treated as a single section, all reading from the same part which can be divided in any number of ways. This, however, doesn’t translate well to concert practice. See Divisi - Divide and Conquer