The answer is really quite obvious if you've ever heard a British brass band live - even the relatively small brass section in a symphony orchestra can completely dominate in terms of volume. It was established in Goldscheider v Royal Opera House that a typical brass section can achieve peak sound pressure levels of 137dB(A) without any special effort.

If a brass section give it the beans, then it's literally like standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier for anyone sat in front of them. You can feel your eyes vibrating in your head. You need a lot of string players to even hope to keep up with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InN8MTV2t1Y

Anthropologists believe that the enlarged strings sections of symphonies were used to demonstrate fitness for sexual reproduction with other large ensembles. This view is controversial, however: others believe string sections may have played a role in religious ceremony.

The divisions are also interesting.

You've typically got something like a group of 16 violins for the first section, then another group of 16 for the second section.

Each section has a "1st chair" which is the violinist sitting at index 0. Typically the best players are at the lower indices.

Violin[0][0] is the "concertmaster," who gets to come out to applause and then play an "a" at 440 Hertz to tune up the orchestra. When a part of the composition is marked "solo" in the score-- say, a challenging or lyrical melody to be played by a single violin-- the concertmaster is the one who plays it.

As far as I know, there's no standard way for the composer to notate a solo for, say, violin[1][15] (or, to use a safer Javascript notation to cover cases of smaller orchestras, violin[-1]). Instead, the violins typically get divided in the score into groups of 2 or 4, or possibly more for modern compositions.

I'm not a violinist, but I've always wondered about violin[0][1]-- first section second chair-- vs. violin[1][0]-- second section first chair. I think I'd rather be the latter and be in charge of the second section. Being second chair of the first section seems like you'd just end up envying all the solos that the concertmaster plays. (Edit: and also having to practice all those solos in case the concertmaster gets sick.)

Wasn't always this way -- see this historic reconstruction of a Baroque orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNqJ8mED1VE (Handel, Music for the Royal Fireworks on period instruments)

Down on the lowest level of the stage we find a small string orchestra, but then behind it on risers there are something like 18 oboes(!!), 10 bassoons, 9 horns, 9 trumpets.

I've always wondered that myself, especially why all the focus and acclaim for the violinists over and above the other musicians. I'm sure it's pretty difficult to play the French horn or the clarinet, so why is it always a bozo with a violin that takes the bow with the conductor?

This may have the answer though - pure musical chauvinism - "The board of the Philadelphia Orchestra allegedly said the winds "weren't busy enough to put on a good show."

This makes a lot of sense when it comes to vibrating large volumes of air in a concert hall.

But something in this realm that also surprises me is how a small amount of strings can sound like a much bigger ensemble through composition and arranging techniques. For example I’m always amazed at how full Mozart’s string quartets sound.

It’s also interesting how early game systems had to make use of these techniques since their synth chips had limited voices. Sometimes just three waveforms and a noise wave form (for ‘percussion’)

The rule of thumb for an orchestra is n double bass, n+2 cellos, n+4 violas, n+6 2nd violins, n+8 1st violins. Usually n ranges from 4 to 8.

Part of it is volume. You need 30-50 violins to get the same amount of sound that comes out of a single tuba.

Part of it is tradition/history. Orchestral music is written with the assumption you’ll have a specific proportion of the various instruments, concert halls are constructed with acoustics that assume you’ll have the same proportions, etc.

Nobody is going to stop you from having fewer violins in your orchestra, but to do that you’re going to have to take on work that other orchestras don’t have to take on.

> The violin is a comparatively quiet instrument

I knew it!

I go to DCI shows because I prefer horns to strings. A skilled horn line at max volume will change your life.

That said, I’ve been going less because the compositions have gotten way too “artsy.” Let’s play a bunch of discordant chords and unresolved runs, because we’re artists, not entertainers. In fact, we would prefer if most people didn’t like it!