A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tutti
TUTTI (Ital.), all. This word is used to designate those parts of a vocal or instrumental composition which are performed by the whole of the forces at once. In the scores, and more frequently in the chorus parts of masses, cantatas, etc., the parts for the solo quartet (where such is employed) are often written on the same set of staves as the chorus parts, in which case the words Solo and Tutti are used to distinguish the one from the other. The same thing is done in the solo part of a pianoforte concerto, and also in the band parts of concertos generally, so that the orchestra may know where to avoid overpowering the solo instrument. It is a frequent custom in large orchestras to allow only a portion of the strings (three desks or so) to accompany solos, though if the conductor understands how to keep the players well down this is not necessary. The term Ripieno was formerly applied to those violins which only play in the tuttis. For this end in some modern scores (Hiller's cantata 'Die Nacht,' Liszt's 'Graner Messe,' etc.), the string parts are marked S and T or S and R where requisite.
The term Tutti has thence been applied to those portions of a concerto in which the orchestra—not necessarily the whole orchestra—plays while the solo instrument is silent. In the Mozartian form of the concerto the first movement has in particular two long tuttis, one at the beginning, to present the whole of the subject-matter, and the second (rather shorter) in the middle to work it out. This arrangement is still in use, though the modern tendency is to bring the solo instrument and the orchestra into closer rapport and consequently to shorten the pure solos and tuttis. Beethoven introduced (PF. Concerto in G, No. 4) the innovation of allowing the soloist to open the proceedings, but though the doing so with a flourish, as in his E♭ Concerto, has been frequently imitated since, no one has followed the extremely original and simple precedent afforded by the former work. Examples of unusually long tuttis may be noticed in Beethoven's E♭ and Violin Concertos, Litolff's 'Dutch' Concerto-symphonic, and Tschaikowsky's immense work in B♭ minor. Mendelssohn, in his G minor, set the fashion of short tuttis, which is followed by Hiller, Grieg, and others. Schumann's A minor Concerto has one of 32 short bars, another of 20, and none besides of more than 8. Brahms in D minor and Dvorák in B♭, however, return to the old fashion of a lengthy exordium.
In pure orchestral music, especially up to Beethoven's time, we speak of the forte passages as 'the tuttis,' from the fact of their being the places where the full orchestra is used in a mass, but in modern music the tendency is to use nearly the whole orchestra everywhere, in soft or loud places, a custom which tends to render the general tone-colour dull and monotonous.
In military bands, where little difference of tone-colour is attainable, and volume of sound the prime consideration, the music is nearly all Tutti.