Point of View

The Ensemble is largely narrated by a third-person, non-exegetic narrator. Each chapter is title with the name of the perspective character, to whose point of view the narrator is contained with the notable exception of some concert scenes. At pivotal moments when the quartet is playing music together, the narrator will move between the characters, mimicking the unspoken emotional communication between them as they play.

This perspective-sharing occurs at the graduation recital and both Esterhazy competitions, but it is most crucial to the novel’s themes in the second Esterhazy, where the characters’ thoughts seem to bleed into each other. Brit and Daniel share a moment just before the music starts in which they acknowledge that between all four quartet members, there is “some contract somewhere that no one ever saw or signed” which compels them all to love each other (169). In the next paragraph...