Divisi troubles

I’d misunderstood the divisi concept when I originally input this:


What I really meant was two solo players playing, with the rest of the players silent, but the labelling doesn’t reflect that (because of my misconstruing the routine). I suppose I must have expected my Ctrl+X ‘solo’ instruction to show above both solo staves, but of course it doesn’t.
So - I tried editing the divisi dialog. I tried adding and subtracting staves from within it, and nothing worked. At one point I thought I’d got it right when the dialog (and the score) correctly showed Solo 1, Solo 2 and gli altri. However, this led to everything in the standard (tutti) 1st violin staff being removed completely in every bar following the divisi section (indeed, in one attempt the actual staff disappeared). How do I salvage this?

In page view, you can only have a single divisi change in a system - so if there’s already a prevailing divisi at the start of the system, a subsequent divisi change in the system doesn’t result in a different number of staves until the next system.

In galley view, you can see all the staves and perhaps see where they start/end more clearly. Perhaps switch to galley view temporarily to get an overview of the situation.

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The good news is that anything you write in a divisi passage stays ‘in the score’, even if you cover it up with a Unison flag.

You could have 2 solo and gli altri, with gli altri completely silent. Or just divide into two staffs, and mark each one with “Solo”. Text if needs be. You should be able to copy the Solo text onto the lower divisi staff.

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I think I can see what my problem is, and it dates from my original ignorance (some time ago now) of how to work the divisi feature. This shows what the trouble is:


I evidently continued to input the tutti violin part on what was then (see screenshot in previous post) the lower solo staff; so of course, when I put the ‘restore unis.’ flag in, it hides everything in the 1st violin part for the rest of the flow. I moved this material into the ‘gli altri’ staff :

Then I restored the unison:

…and the 1st violin material still disappears, as does (in Page view) the 1st violin staff, for the rest of the flow:

If only I could understand how to use the Restore Unison command properly, then all would be well…

I think one of the problems here is that extra staves are always added below. When starting a divisi with 2 soloists, solo 1 occupies the (persistent) top staff, and solo 2 and gli altri are the extras. After restoring the unison, the top staff will take over as the tutti Vn1 staff again, and if the other staves are shown for the rest of the system, they will display the tutti music on all three.
This is slightly un-intuitive, as adding solo staves to a section feels like adding something above, but Dorico’s divisi facilities aren’t structured like that, technically. It takes a little getting used to.
You’re not the first one to get confused here (yours truly included). It has been discussed before (but I’m too lazy to look it up right now). It’s unlikely this structure will change anytime soon, because divisi and condensing, its counterpart, are complicated stuff, but who knows.

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Thanks, Pjotr - I’m glad I’m not alone! It looks, then, as if I need to move the Violin 1 material following the divisi section to the Solo 1 staff - not the gli altri staff - and all will be well. I’m eager to try it when I get back to the machine!