Our Services, Explained

If you don’t have a background in classical music, (or any music for that matter!) it might be a bit confusing to figure out what musicians to hire for your event.  I’m here to explain what services we have available and which one you might want to choose.  

First of all, in the music industry we refer to different groups of musicians as “ensembles”.  You can have lots of different ensembles, from a small ensemble of four musicians to a large orchestra of 60+ people!  At Miss Musique, we focus mainly on the smaller ensembles.  

The first and most popular ensemble we offer is the String Quartet.  This ensemble is the gold standard of smaller ensembles because all four main voices of tonal harmony are covered.  It consists of two violins, a viola and a cello.  The first and second violins cover the melody and counter melody (respectively) in the upper voices, the viola covers the rhythmic and harmonic counterpoints to the violins in the middle voice, and the cello provides the bass foundation in the lowest voice. 

Most people choose a string quartet because it has the richest and fullest sound of all of the small string ensembles. If you are choosing to have a lot of pop music performed at your event, the string quartet is the way to go.  Pop music just tends to sound better when all four voices are covered. If you are having a large or outdoor event, a string quartet should also be your go-to because of the louder volume and fullness of sound. 

The next service we offer at Miss Musique is the String Trio.  This ensemble consists of a violin, a viola and a cello.  This ensemble is missing the second violin, so it will have the melody in the first violin, the middle voice in the viola and the bass accompaniment in the cello.

In our experience, people choose the string trio because it has the rich, full sound that a quartet has, but you can save a bit of money by eliminating the second violin.  Pop music will also sound good with this ensemble, and the volume output will also be more than sufficient for a medium sized event. 

The next service we offer is the String Duo.  This ensemble consists of a violin and cello.  You will notice that it’s missing the two middle voices but you still get the outer framework with the melody in the violin and the bass accompaniment in the cello.  

The string duo is a favorite for our clients due to its budget-friendly nature.  You can still get the benefits of having live music at your event at a very affordable price point!  However, this ensemble can start to sound a bit thin if you are requesting pop music.  We normally recommend clients pick mostly classical music for this duo to shine!  It’s perfect for smaller or indoor events due to its more subtle volume.  Those that want the duo at larger or outdoor events might consider our amplification package to boost the volume!

Last but certainly not least, we have the solo violinist.  As you can imagine, this is just the melody line covered by the violin.  90% of the time I will recommend adding on another instrument to our violinist.  A violin and harp, violin and guitar, or our electric violinist with backing tracks are great options!  However, if you have a very small event and classical music is your favorite, the violin soloist is for you!