Modern (Hollywood) score convention for Solo & Tutti

Question

I've written my first orchestral score, and I've engraved it, as best I can, in a style to serve recording it by a conductor and orchestra on a sound stage in a short session, Hollywood soundtrack style. The focus is on readability so they can render it from sight reading in very few takes.

I've found lots of resources for how to properly engrave all the parts of the score (especially the book Behind Bars by Elaine Gould), but one aspect still eludes me:

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What is the modern practice to indicate that only the section leader should play for a passage, and then what is the best way to indicate the whole section should play again for a later passage?

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Some may be inclined to answer "Solo and Tutti, respectively", but it appears that at least the word "Solo" has come to mean more a playing style and it isn't modern practice to use that to indicate only one player.

I have found what I think is the correct answer, which is to put 1 at the beginning of the passage for the section leader. Assuming that is correct, is that only acceptable when the player numbers are indicated at the beginning of the score (e.g., first system says "Flutes 1, 2, 3" and then later a passage may be marked "1" or "1, 2" to indicate those players play the passage)? And that still doesn't clarify for me the modern way to indicate "Tutti" - is the word still acceptable or should it say "1, 2, 3" or something else?

Answer 1

For woodwinds and brass the standard is to write a separate part for each instrument. If you are combining parts in the score it's usual to indicate a solo as "1." or "2." and then "a2" (or "a3") afterwards.

Each of the five string section parts is put on one part (although you could theoretically combine the first and second violins on a two-system part). If you want a solo violin you write "1 solo" and the rest as "tutti" (or "gli altri"). If you want two soloists: "2 soli".

From Elaine Gould's reference "Behind Bars":

The terms solo (for one player) and soli (for two or more players) are instructions to play in a soloistic manner.

For woodwind, brass and percussion, a single player alone is labelled by player number.

In a string section an individual player must be labelled by numeral and solo to avoid confusion with desk or division number: 1 solo etc.