I notice the absence of violas. Mozart, too, has always scored all his dance music without violas. Does anyone know why that is? They always included violas in their other orchestral works, but always left them out in their dance music. My guess is that the violists played along with the bass part, so they didn't need their part written separately, but that's just a guess.
On the other side, one can notice the 1st violin part is often divided into two parts. One can imagine 1st & 2nd violins playing the 1st violin part, and violas playing 2nd violin part. In a certain way, this is what Benjamin Britten wrote in his Variations on a theme of Purcell: 1st & 2nd violins playing the same melody until theme D.
These pieces should be played more, .They are too beautiful to be hidden from true lovers of classical music
I notice the absence of violas. Mozart, too, has always scored all his dance music without violas. Does anyone know why that is? They always included violas in their other orchestral works, but always left them out in their dance music.
My guess is that the violists played along with the bass part, so they didn't need their part written separately, but that's just a guess.
A very keen observeration and interesting question, which I myself cannot answer
On the other side, one can notice the 1st violin part is often divided into two parts.
One can imagine 1st & 2nd violins playing the 1st violin part, and violas playing 2nd violin part.
In a certain way, this is what Benjamin Britten wrote in his Variations on a theme of Purcell: 1st & 2nd violins playing the same melody until theme D.