instrument names in score

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MichelRE
Posts: 251
Joined: 07 Aug 2021, 17:11

instrument names in score

Post by MichelRE »

A question: is there some standard as to whether to indicate whether instruments are "plural" or not?

for example, would one add an "s" to the end of "violin" for a section? how about to the abbreviation?

I've looked through my orchestral scores, and in various languages, some have plurals, others don't.

I have two scores with instrument names in Italian, one with singular names and abbreviations, the other with plurals.
One English score with plurals, and another with singular.

Is it really just arbitrary? whatever you want? or are there historic periods where one was more prevalent than the other?
benwiggy
Posts: 835
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: instrument names in score

Post by benwiggy »

I suspect it's just down to house style.

The early 18th-century Italian sources I deal with tend to use plurals or singulars accurately, e.g. Violini, Bassi, Oboi; but Violino solo, Flauto, Tromba, etc.
Interestingly, voices are always singular -- Canto, Alto, etc, though that doesn't necessarily mean one to a part.

The singular form for sections is a kind of adjectival shorthand, where "Violin 1" means "the Violin 1 part/line", regardless of how many players there might be. It's perhaps a more conceptual organization.

But I doubt you'll find any hard and fast rules; and no one will be confused either way (which is the main consideration).
Anders Hedelin
Posts: 274
Joined: 16 Aug 2017, 16:36
Location: Sweden

Re: instrument names in score

Post by Anders Hedelin »

If I'm not wrong, the only indication that has to be plural is Bassi in older scores, for violoncelli and contrabbassi sharing the same notes on the same staff.
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