Divisi: write unison when it changes back for just one note?

[erica-grace]

Do I write "unis" at bar 3, or just leave it, as it would be implied?

Part of me wants to give the musicians proper instruction, but the other part of me wants to stick with what I have heard more than a few times: less on the score page is better than more.

Thanks!

Click to read more...

 

[purple]

Do I write "unis" at bar 3, or just leave it, as it would be implied?

Part of me wants to give the musicians proper instruction, but the other part of me wants to stick with what I have heard more than a few times: less on the score page is better than more.

Thanks!

If I were in divisi like that i'd take it as implied, especially if the texture of the music doesn't lend itself to half a section just dropping out like that. It really can't hurt to be abundantly clear and put unis. but if you feel it's cluttered I'd take it out.

I'm not a cellist, but as a bassoonist we often have both first and second parts notated on the same line and unless it says "solo" or "1" or something, it's meant to be both players. Of course with notes that have stems you can have stems both ways to make it clear as well.

 

[JT]

The technical answer depends on how the staff is labelled. You have the staff named Violoncello, by definition any single note on this part is played by everyone. So unison (or a2) is implied and not needed. But div. is correct and should be used each time there are more than one note.

But if this staff was named Cello 1/2, then you would never write div. because by default each celli will play one of the notes. But you would write unison or a2 when the part is named like this.

It's kind of confusing, but I hope I'm explaining it well enough to understand the concept. And realize that my explanation is something that is minutia and used by music publishers. In real life use, no one will complain if you add unison where technically it's not needed.

And I also agree with the concept that less ink on the page is better.

 

[JJP]

Save a question being asked. Add in the text unis. as you have above.

Questions take up time, so just add it in. It's expected and not clutter.

This nails it. Some string players will tell you it's unnecessary, and perhaps it is because 99% of the time they will both play it, but it's best to be exact to avoid questions. It's not an excessive or distracting amount of text on the page.

 

[erica-grace]

Thanks everyone!

 

[whgoss]

This appears to be asked and answered, but another option, if you want to avoid writing unison and then going back to divisi, is to simply show the unison as a divisi like so:

I would write it this way instead of cluttering up the score with extra text, but that's just my preference.

 

[DavidY]

This appears to be asked and answered, but another option, if you want to avoid writing unison and then going back to divisi, is to simply show the unison as a divisi like so:

I would write it this way instead of cluttering up the score with extra text, but that's just my preference.

That way was my first thought too.
As a poor sight reader that way is clearer to me and I would read the notes more easily than reading text above/below the score.