#i literally fell asleep halfway through 🙈

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

Hello I would love to hear about mjn string quartet au!

why yes! thank you for asking! 😏

lmao this took soooo long my sincere apologies for the wait!

the basics:

so mjn is a string quartet (which is what it says on the tin so idk why this is a whole bullet point)

martin = violin I, douglas = violin II, arthur = violist, carolyn = cellist

herc is a violinist and pianist, the latter for trios and stuff

theresa is a pianist and books them to play at an investiture ceremony

they basically go around playing for people’s weddings and as ambient music for other events (mr birling demands ambient music every year or something like that i haven’t thought that out)

okay now for some ✨details✨

martin and douglas as violinists are the easiest translations from charter airline to string quartet bc they play the same instrument.

the chaos comes from martin being tasked to lead, but being awful at it

“martin, for heaven’s sake—give a clearer signal or don’t give one at all!” -carolyn, probably

user maia artxmis i know you were in a quartet with me once where i was violin I and i didn’t know how to lead....i’m so sorry....nearer my god to thee DO NOT INTERACT !!!

to martin’s credit he is very diligent. he knows his parts pretty well, and his melodic interpretation isn’t bad, it’s just that he could be better at. a lot of stuff

douglas is very good at supporting a melody but he is even better at playing the melody, to martin’s general chagrin

but douglas makes a very good second violinist in that he works well with the lower instruments (i mean lower like range not in any hierarchical sense)

he knows how to defer and he is good at it. martin....meh.

also i was a second violinist for my stint as an ensemble musician so i May be biased... 🤭

arthur is a violist

lil rant: i absolutely love violas and i don’t get why people make fun of them or the people who play them !! the viola is a beautiful instrument and in a different life i would have chosen it! also my violin teacher plays the viola and she’s a literal genius and she’s one of my favorite people on this green planet and i would Die For Her !! so keep the viola jokes off my tl !! 😤

arthur: “it’s like a cello and a violin, but mixed together. it’s got a C string, like a cello, but you can put it on your shoulder like a violin! and furthermore, i don’t have to buy an extra seat for it like Mum does whenever we go travel—”

carolyn: “thank you arthur, that’ll do...”

arthur unironically sees the viola, and alto clef for that matter, as a “best of both worlds”/“happy medium” type deal

nobody else quite understands why arthur thinks this way, especially about alto clef, but he is quite good at the viola so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

carolyn is a cellist. this is because she believes in bass clef supremacy.

also the cello is a beautiful instrument and in a different life i would have chosen it so this is kind of self indulgence too

literally what am i talking about? this whole au is the peak of self indulgence.....

carolyn also has played the double bass, not so much nowadays because she cannot fit it into her car

but if a chamber piece calls for it (and i am looking straight at the trout quintet for this) she will play it and she will look absolutely badass while playing it

i’m talking this level of cool. look closely at how the bassist on the left interacts with the celli. and how they all look at each other but i digress so natural! so fluid! i swoon! i first saw this recording in like. 2017 or something. i haven’t recovered

honestly though that video^ gives me so much serotonin i wanna play in an ensemble again :(((((( also someone i won’t name kinda threw shade at that recording once bc it’s not what you’d expect from a string ensemble and i was Ready To Fight

so yeah, there ya have it, how mjn would be as a string quartet in my head! >.< hope u like it !!