Complete the following sentence:
The 1st violin ______ the 2nd violin at the start of the extract.
Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityYou could say it's imitation:
In music, imitation is the repetition of a melody in a polyphonic texture shortly after its first appearance in a different voice.
Wikipedia uses this example from Bartok's Mikrokosmos, which is similar to yours:
Also, this example from Bach's Fugue no. 16:
The 1st violin imitates the 2nd violin at the start of the extract.
"Imitates" is probably best, but another option would be "follows".
The initial melody is called the leader (or dux), while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower (or comes).