Element Quartet gave the premières of his first three string quartets; Quartet No.2 is dedicated to the Element Quartet, and Quartet No.3 is dedicated to their violist, Dorothy Hemming. Element Quartet The Element Quartet was a string quartet prominent in British musical life in the 1950s and 1960s. The members were Ernest Element and Sylvia Cleaver (violins), Dorothy Hemming (viola), and Norman Jones (cello). The quartet were the first to perform Schubert's String Quartet No. 2 in C major following restoration of its previously lost score. The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio on 23 December, one of the many broadcasts they
String quartet is often in Rondo form or Sonata rondo form, in the tonic key. Some quartets play together for many years in ensembles which may be named after the first violinist (e.g. the Takács Quartet), a composer (e.g. the Borodin Quartet) or a location (e.g. the Budapest Quartet). Well-known string quartets can be found in the list of string quartet ensembles. The early history of the string quartet is in many ways the history of Haydn's journey with the genre. Not that he composed the first quartet of all: before Haydn alighted on the genre there had been several spasmodic examples