Element Quartet 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 made for the BBC from the 1950s to the early 1960s. The Element Quartet was particularly associated with the early string quartets of Robert Simpson. The quartet
String Quartet in Four Parts composed for the same ensemble: "Thirty pieces for String Quartet" of 1983, "Music for Four" of 1987–88 and "Four" of 1989. String Quartet in Four Parts String Quartet in Four Parts is a string quartet by John Cage, composed in 1950. It is one of the last works Cage wrote that is not entirely aleatoric. Like "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano (1946–48) and the ballet "The Seasons" (1947), this work explores ideas from Indian philosophy. Cage began writing the quartet in 1949 in Paris. Prior to beginning to work on the piece, he told his parents that he wanted