How would you (if you would) arrange a 3 voice fugue for a strings ensamble?

Hi! Ive composed a 3 voice fugue. While in the process of recording it, one of my fellow musicians asked me to do an arrangement of it to be played with a string ensamble.
I would love to do it, but I struggle to imagine how would that go, since as you know, strings ensambles tipically have violins 1, violins 2, violas, cellos and contrabass, wich make up 5 voices. Even if cellos and contrabass both play bass part, its still 4 voices, and the piece only has 3.
Can you think of any ways to get around this? Do you know of any examples of works that already did somehting similar?
Theres always the option of re-writing it into a 4 voice fugue, but I would like to modify it as little as possible. Any thoughts? thanks in advanced!

Hello @Lean,

Welcome to the forum!

For me, why not just have a string trio for the fugue? A violin, viola (or second violin) and cello would be good enough.

Henry

This is a question I've struggled with too.  For a four-part texture, it's obvious that the way to score for string choir is violin I, violin II, viola, cello+bass.  But what is the best way to balance a three-part texture?  I don't have a good answer, but would be interested in one.

49 minutes ago, Aiwendil said:

This is a question I've struggled with too.  For a four-part texture, it's obvious that the way to score for string choir is violin I, violin II, viola, cello+bass.  But what is the best way to balance a three-part texture?  I don't have a good answer, but would be interested in one.

What about having either the 2nd Violins or the Cellos be divisi?  You could have one of the three voices in the 3-part texture be 1st Violins and 2nd Violins doubled.  Then, the 2nd voice in the 3-part texture could be Violas either doubled by the divisi 2nd Violins (or if too low) the divisi Cellos.  While the 3rd voice in the 3-part texture could be Cellos and Basses!

Hello! Thanks everyone for your thoughts and specially for replying so fast!
 

6 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

What about having either the 2nd Violins or the Cellos be divisi?  You could have one of the three voices in the 3-part texture be 1st Violins and 2nd Violins doubled.  Then, the 2nd voice in the 3-part texture could be Violas either doubled by the divisi 2nd Violins (or if too low) the divisi Cellos.  While the 3rd voice in the 3-part texture could be Cellos and Basses!

 

Yes I think Im gonna do something like that, or just divide some of the compound melodies it has between the instruments, like this example below I found:

4 instruments sharing a 3 part piece and it sounds smooth and natural. What do you think? 😄

For me, a four part ensemble playing a 3 part fugue, I'd use the spare instrument (as appropriate) to reinforce a line or entries where need be. The stretto, for example, needs clear entries. Swap the instrumental parts of the fugue around so you can marcato each voice entering.