Ten-Forward String Quartet Instruments

A matched set of four acoustic string instruments — two violins, a viola and a cello — with polished wooden bodies, subtle varnish, taut strings and dark fingerboards. Players cradle the violins and viola at the shoulder and brace the cello between the knees; they tune, bow and produce soft, intimate chamber music that sits low under conversation. In the current material the instruments provide a hush in Ten-Forward as Geordi nurses private disappointment; Guinan's offhand command to "try flying without instruments" uses the instruments' presence as a metaphor for risk and vulnerability, and the quartet's music is abruptly cut as duty calls.