Conlon Nancarrow spent most of his musical career as an expatriate from his native United States, living and working in Mexico City. From his earliest years he had a particular interest in the effects created by the superimposition of different rhythmic patterns. Well before computer- assisted performance was possible, Nancarrow found that complex, exacting mathematical relationships between different musical lines were most practically effected by hand-punching "scores" directly onto player piano rolls. By this means, Nancarrow composed dozens of etudes for player piano, which together form one of the lesser-known but indisputable touchstones of twentieth-century music.

Nancarrow's early String Quartet No. 1 (1945) demonstrates the kind of rhythmic complexity that eventually led the composer to the techniques described above. The work's final movement (each of the movements employ standard metronomic markings) demonstrates a particular rhythmic independence among its various threads and is most readily performed, in fact, by allowing each player to wear earpieces to hear his or her separate rhythm track. Despite the aridly intellectual, "eye candy" implications of such a work, the Quartet is actually exciting and vibrant, displaying a clear jazz, and even blues, influence.

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