This is an unusually attractive string quartet in a style midway between late-Romantic and French Impressionist, possessing the French qualities of clarity, calm, and tasteful restraint.

Authorities differ as to when and where Martinu wrote it; most say 1918 in his hometown of Policka, East Bohemia. He did not himself number it as Quartet No. 1; that was done by the publishing company Panton, which gave the work its belated first publication in 1973. Martinu himself in a 1925 letter to his friend Stanislav Novak said that a visiting string quartet should play "the second—the French quartet."

It is clear, then, that Martinu at regarded the 1917 quartet in E flat minor as his actual String Quartet No. 1. Panton compounded the confusion by attaching to its edition of this quartet an introductory note pertaining to the E flat minor work.

Martinu is on record as having loved to write chamber music—the string quartet in particular. "In a quartet one feels at home, intimate, happy," he wrote. "Outside it is raining and getting dark but the four voices do not notice it: they are independent, free, doing what they want." In fact, his very first childhood work was for quartet, a piece he called The Three Riders.

For a composer who started so young and was so prolific, Martinu had an unusually extended musical "childhood." Partly this was because he was so receptive to musical developments that he constantly was absorbing the rapid changes in musical style then occurring. In addition, he was isolated from Western Europe when World War I broke out in 1914. This is perhaps why this quartet sounds much like the 1903 quartet by Maurice Ravel: Martinu had absorbed the Impressionism of the pre-War period but probably had little contact with recent developments.

Paradoxically, when Martinu finally moved to Paris in the early 1920s, he quickly caught up to the new trends in both French and Austro-German music and rapidly became less French in sound.

Even at the age of 28 Martinu was having trouble developing his own voice and gaining firm control of his musical materials. This is an uncommonly long string quartet at between 35 and 40 minutes. There is too much material in it, and there are awkward introductions of new material. The final movement is the least well-balanced in form: About two-thirds of the way through it sounds as if it almost certainly is ending, and sounds like a very satisfactory conclusion. Then a new section arrives, which is so beautiful that one accepts it, but wishes Martinu had found a way to integrate it into a firmer structure.

The quartet is in four movements: Moderato—Allegro ma non troppo; Andante moderato; Allegro non troppo, and Allegro con brio. It pays homage to the French masters of the Romantic era by using a cyclic form: a rich-sounding theme introduced in the first movement plays an important structural part throughout.

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