Completed in 1919 when the composer was only 16 years old, William Walton's Quartet for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, while not entirely indicative of the composer's mature style, nonetheless exhibits certain stylistic traits that would figure prominently in Walton's later output. While the composer officially withdrew another early work, a string quartet, from his oeuvre, the Piano Quartet remained—and was even published—while Walton was engaged in his collegiate studies at Oxford. One could perhaps attribute the work's occasionally haphazard energy to Walton's personal and musical immaturity at the time of its composition. Such an assertion, however, could more easily apply quantitatively than qualitatively: it is not the kind, but the measure and pace of Walton's style that differs most apparently when listening to this early work—the sole representative of his early chamber work (given the withdrawal of the string quartet)—alongside later chamber pieces.

Those most intimately familiar with Walton's music see in the Piano Quartet shades of the older composer's approach to thematic execution and development. While consciously cohesive in its distribution and presentation of thematic materials, the piece rarely reiterates melodies or gestures squarely or verbatim. Rather, it elaborates "on the fly"— repetitions frequently shift within the metric scheme so that melodic modules continually find themselves beginning on different beats within a bar or overlapping and "misaligning" with other repeated elements. Likewise, the piece exhibits a perceptibly Waltonian sense of rhythmic drive and emphatic articulation, as well as a creative approach to "expanded" tonal harmonies built upon the framework of traditional chord progressions but employing poignant combinations of non-chord tones in order to augment the dramatic effect of harmonic motions and tensions.

The Piano Quartet is in four movements, which together run about 30 minutes. The first movement, marked Allegramente, assumes a straightforward sonata form with clearly delineated expositional theme groups, a development, and a condensed recapitulation. The wandering Dorian melody that begins in the violin over the cello's drone provides much of the material for the rest of the movement (and the rest of the piece). The second movement, Allegro Scherzando, is percussive and punchy, with constant motion maintained by repeated chordal accompaniment. Reiterative exclamations are exchanged between the instruments, eventually transforming into a fugato subject, one which shares the mode and certain contours with the first movement material. As suggested by the tempo marking, the Andante Tranquilo is much more lyrical than the preceding movements. Evoking a perfectly languorous mood, the music frequently transgresses the borders between melody and accompaniment, as instruments seamlessly fade in and out of prominence. The final movement, Allegro Molto, provides a sharp contrast to the Andante, with a lively pace, heavy offbeat jabs, and a quasi-ritornello structure that reiterates the frenetic thematic material in always traceable, but ever-evolving, guises.

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