Excellent work, Justin! Two clarifications: first, I've often seen "solo" and "tutti" uncapitalised, especially in string section markings. Second, sometimes when winds or brass are playing "soli," but their parts have been split to individual lines, their part may be marked "solo," or the engraver may clarify that their group is playing "soli."
I have NO idea how to write music... or play an instrument, as a matter of fact (I dropped out of band after and I WISH I hadn’t). However, I’ve really gotten into A Lot Like Birds lately, and their last album is named “DIVISI.” I HAD to figure out what it meant, so I came here, watched the whole video, and goddamn was that educational. AND- I can now listen to that amazing album again with that context in mind. So yah, thank you! Very good video. ✨✨✨✨
Hi Justin, this is a very good job. I'd like to give you a little note (this is not a criticism, I'm thankful for your work): the right pronunciation of "GLI" is similar to and not . Hope to watch soon another video from you. Thank you.
Magnificent explanation. A colleague and I have a question in which we don't know what would be more appropriate to indicate in the score: solo or soli. In our example (an orchestral work) the melodic line is at a certain moment shared by 3 instruments: a clarinet, a solo violin and a solo cello, while other instruments are just accompanying or have silences in their staves. We want to specify in the score that this passage is important for those 3 instruments, so we understand that the clarinet must have the "soli 1." indication on it's stave (shared with a 2nd clarinet that will not play). However, in the string section, we need to indicate that the melody should be played by the first violin (concertino) only, not by the entire Violin section, and also by one cello, but not all Violonchelos section. In this case, I understand that we need to specify "solo" to make sure that they understand only one of the players should play, but it seems a bit strange to me to write "soli" for the clarinet but "solo" for violin and cello, while all of them will play the same melody and no one will be really alone. What would you advise us? Should we write “Soli” on the Violins I and Cellos staffs instead of “Solo”? Or maybe indicate both (Violin Solo, Soli) so they will know that another instrument (Clarinet) will also play the same melody? We have been looking and analyzing many scores to see if we could find a similar example by chance, but we have not had any luck so far. So, we would appreciate your help. Thank you!
Very good and informative. I noticed you did not mention choral use of such terms. In choral music I've seen Soli refer to a group of soloists, such as an SATB quartet, each on a different part, but still a section of soloists.
Note for anyone who cares about the pronunciation of "gli altri", it is pronounced like "yee altri". "Gl" in Italian get spoken as "yee" like in the English word "[Y]ellow". I'm learning Italian and I noticed that, and it annoyed me. But that's nitpicky. And besides, this video is great!
Does 'tutti' have to be used only after a Solo section? I have a line I wrote for a bridge of a composition of mine where 3 instruments are playing at once, with a less busier melody over it. Thank you
Great stuff. I have a question a little off the point. In writing, say, for a string quartet how do you mark the end of a solo passage? I've seen in Vaughan Williams line that he uses a coda mark, but that is awkward in Sibelius.
Many thx Justin, very clear video! Just a small note: in Italian the correct pronunciation of "Unisono" has the accent on the "i" and not on the first "o", otherwise it sounds very strange...
question: if there is both a practical and an expressive way of using the term solo and soli.. why are they written the same ? Usually practical things are written regularly right (Tutti, Unis.Div. )? So why isn't the expressive meaning of soli written in italic typeface? that would solve the problem you describe 7:57 right ? if it would be the practical defenition of soli you could use regular typeface.
This is true, there hasn't been an effort to correct this. I think it's mostly because the use of "Solo" as an expressive text has dramatically fallen out of use in the orchestral world in favor of the practical meaning. In band it is less clear. I don't think I've ever seen solo used as expression text before.
How would I dictate a scenario in which I want, say, 1/3 of the violins only? Soli a "X" doesn't work because I don't know how many players there will be.
I know this is kinda a little late but if I ever want less than half of a section to play alone I usually will say “2 desks” or “3 desks”. These will be about a third of the section depending on if it’s violins, violas, or cellos. It will at least convey that you want a reserved feel. But for small orchestras, I have no idea.
Just afraid that a string player in the string section will take "solo" as to mean "prominent part" rather than just playing its voice alone while the others play other lines or partly other lines. This may be to make a line a bit weaker or to fill in certain chord tones that would otherwise not be heard. The player or players will only play a bar or a phrase by itself, but the rest of the "solo" will be in unison. You don't want to have empty bars, right? I assume it must be better to let the staff out only after a page turn.
I had actually never heard _unisoni_ before, but now that I think about it the singular form _unisono_ doesn't really make sense - one player alone is always playing the same thing as themselves, anyway. :D
@@nibblrrr7124 As far as I'm aware, "unisono" is the actual Italian word for "in unison" or "unanimously". As this is an adverb, there's no plural form. I'm not an expert in Italian, but I've never heard or seen the word "unisoni" with an "i" at the end before watching this video.
