Orchestra seating (was Re: [Finale] Doubling for Pops OrchestraWind Players)

[Michael Cook]

For anyone interested in the complexities of orchestral seating 
plans, there's an excellent book by Daniel J. Koury: "Orchestral 
Performance Practices in the Nineteenth Century" (UMI Research Press, 
ISBN O-8357-2051-9). It's true that the 1st and 2nd violins were 
mostly seated on opposite sides, but this was not a hard and fast 
rule. Norman Del Mar's "Anatomy of the Orchestra" (Faber + Faber, 
ISBN 0-571-11552-7) also gives useful information. Regarding the idea 
that the 2nds will be at a disadvantage when seated with the 
instruments tilted away from the audience, Del Mar says: "Yet the 
apparent loss of tone is an illusion since, like all matters of 
balance, it is instinctively rectified by the players; whereas on the 
contrary a certain variation of timbre can indeed be detected and 
must surely be a positive gain."

Michael Cook

At 18:47 -0400 12/06/2003, David H. Bailey wrote:
When somebody got the foolish notion that the direction the violin 
is facing actually impacts the sound the audience hears.

In the opposites seating, the 2nd violins are facing the rear of the 
stage, so if you hold with the directional-sound bit, it would be 
counterproductive to seat them that way.

The cellos, of course, face front, so their sound is more directed 
at the audience, and the violas are at enough of a slant and their 
role is usually subservient enough in the score that having them 
angled as they are doesn't really diminish their sound.

Personally, I prefer the opposites seating -- it really makes 
contrapuntal passages come alive in my mind.  Having 1sts and 2nds 
all next to each other simply muddies the sound, all those fiddles 
slightly out of phase with each other!
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