Archi

As Printed on a Score

A collective heading rather than a single staff label: it can bracket the string staves, name the strings in a reduction or cue, and appear in directions that address the whole section at once (tutti gli archi). The individual staves are still labelled Violini, Viole, Violoncelli and Contrabbassi.

How Composers Use It

Archi means the whole bowed-string body — first and second violins, violas, cellos and basses — the core of the orchestra and the one family that can sustain a note indefinitely, bow by bow, across its whole range. Use the word when an instruction applies to every string part, and name sections when it does not. Its counterparts are legni (woodwinds) and ottoni (brass).

Related Terms