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All performers playing together — the full ensemble.
Printed above a part where the whole section or ensemble plays again after a solo or reduced passage; it cancels Solo, Soli, a single desk or a counted group (“4 Violini”, “2 Violini”). In a concerto, Tutti marks the orchestral passages in the score and the soloist’s part; in choral music it brings the full choir back after a solo voice.
Tutti means the entire ensemble plays. In a concerto, tutti marks the orchestral sections as opposed to solo passages. Use tutti for climactic moments, powerful unisons, and full-texture statements. The contrast between solo and tutti is one of the concerto's essential dramatic tools.
Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 — the orchestral tutti that opens the work is massive, with the full orchestra in dramatic D minor.
Tutti is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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