Known for years following his death primarily as Benjamin Britten's teacher, Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941) has become increasingly well known in his own right, His first piece for string quartet, Novelletten, was completed in 1904, and his final work in that idiom, his String Quartet No. 4, was written in 1937 when the composer was in his late 50s. While initially allied with a fairly conservative if bountiful tradition derived from Brahms and a number of English predecessors, Bridge began to expand his harmonic world with a focus on chamber music in the 1930s. The String Quartet No. 4 was his first work of major importance since his Violin Sonata of 1932. A life-threatening incident in 1936 (acute bronchitis with complications left the composer in a coma for several days and dangerously weakened his heart) undoubtedly informed the work's content and character.

Following a half year's convalescence, Bridge felt ready to approach composition once more. Within three months, he had completed the first movement and by November 6, 1937, he had finished the remaining two movements. Dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the noted American chamber music patroness and Bridge's friend, and presented to her in autograph form in 1938, the work was given its premiere in September of that year by the Gordon String Quartet at the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music in Pittsfield, MA. For the occasion, Bridge traveled with his wife to the United States for a final time. The performance drew high praise from the composer, but New York critics were absent due to a hurricane. Bridge was further pleased to be the recipient of two important medals for his contributions to chamber music.

Overall, the work neatly merges Viennese influences (particularly that of Berg) with a hint of English gracefulness. Its tonal world and its densely interconnected material are that of the pre-serialist Second Viennese School. The first movement of the quartet is marked Allegro energico and is cast in 3/4 time. The initial tempo (120) later broadens somewhat (104) as a plucked chord lofts the melodic line upward. Here, the composer's wider embrace of musical currents evident on the Continent is palpable—he uses the entire chromatic scale to inject into sonata form a freer texture and flow. The feeling is often mercurial—logical, but unconstrained. The second movement is likewise in 3/4 time, marked Quasi Minuetto (88). Dolce markings abound, and there is a sense of grace and repose that stands in high relief to the first and third movements. The final movement, Adagio ma non troppo—allegro con brio, begins slowly (54), then increases in tempo (80) with skipping downward cadences that rise in pitch before yielding to a strongly rhythmic motive.

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