Pieces For More Orchestras

Charles Ives, for example. It seems to me that the 2nd Symphony requires the orchestra to be divided into two (with two conductors) and even Central Park in the Dark is written with the same system: they are not actually two orchestras, but the same orchestra being divided into two groups playing with a different tempo.

Charles Ives, Central Park in the Dark, BBC Symphony - Lawrence Foster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPZbHNuZzI

Open content (youtube)

In fact, it's not that I have too much information about it; is the case you are proposing a bit like the double choir that was used half a millennium ago in Venice?

Tiger wrote:

In fact, it's not that I have too much information about it; is the case you are proposing a bit like the double choir used half a millennium ago in Venice?

Hmm, from a certain point of view yes, from another definitely no.

The double-choir that we know from the medieval and Renaissance eras had an acoustic purpose: choirs singing from two opposing balconies to create depth and spatialization of sound, taking advantage of the construction of churches.

This use of the double orchestra, however (I am speaking of Ives), aims to simulate the coexistence of two worlds traveling at different "speeds": Central Park at night—where no one walks and nothing moves—and the nearby streets, where every now and then you hear the din of a party, or a street musician playing a clarinet lightly... and this is why two different tempos are used: Central Park with the strings, very slow and static; the outside of the park with the winds and the piano, chaotic, rapid, and "out of sync". Here, in reality, there is only one orchestra, even if it is divided into two.

...is good listening to be found around, Carlos?