In musical terminology, ''divisi'', or as typically printed ''“div.,”'' is an instruction to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections. This usually applies to the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s of the string section in an orchestra, although

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

s, and

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...

es can also be divided. Typically, 4-part

French Horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

sections include divided sections if Horns 1/2 and/or 3/4 are not playing the same music (" a2"). Other

brass instruments A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...

can also be divided but it is not as frequent as with the Horn section.

Woodwinds Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and ree ...

- especially

Flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and

Clarinets The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. ...

- also utilize "divisi" to divide music between parts and even between players of the same part. After a divisi section, it may be cancelled by the instructions ''

tutti ''Tutti'' is an Italian word literally meaning ''all'' or ''together'' and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist. It is applied similarly to choral music, where the whole section or choir is called to sing. ...

'', ''all'unisono''.{{Cite Grove , first=David , last=Fallows , date=2001 , title=Divisi (It.: 'divided') , url=https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07869 or ''

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or pe ...

'' (abbreviated ''unis.''). The German equivalents for ''divisi'' and ''tutti'', often used in German language scores, are ''geteilt'' (or ''getheilt'', abbreviated ''get.'') and ''zusammen'' (abbreviated ''zus.''). Some pieces use notation that refers to half of a section or referring to a specific number of performers. For instance,

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's scores include directions for small sections of the chorus by ''metà'' ("half") or ''soli quattro soprani'' ("four sopranos alone"). Some German late Romantic scores use instructions like ''die eine Hälfte''/''die andere Hälfte'' ("one half" and "the other half").

References

Musical terminology