Ruth Crawford Seeger's String Quartet (1931) is "regarded as one of the finest modernist works of the genre".

The composition is in four untitled movements:String Quartet 1931 is Crawford's most frequently performed, recorded, and analyzed work.

It has been regarded as a collection of experimental procedures she developed during the previous two years, including dissonant counterpoint, early serial techniques, formal symmetries, and number centricity.

[5] The first movement features a polyphonic framework using linear formations that are subjected to various contrapuntal operations: contrary (for inversion), crab (for retrograde), and basic transposition.

It uses motives that are manipulated through the reordering of the intervals and constant shifting of rhythmic patterns to different parts of the beat.

Dynamics are used in a similar manner as in the first movement, and reinforce musical effects created by the rhythm and melodic motives.

[2] The main melody of the third movement gives rise to harmonic effects that are characteristic of Crawford's customary melodic practices.

The melody is split into two large sections, the first ascending in slow arches, and the second rapidly descending to its starting point.

In some analyses, the orderly-patterned serial voice is regarded as more "rational" and "masculine", while the first violin's individuality is more "assertive" and "feminine".

[7] String Quartet 1931 is one of the more celebrated works in the 20th century chamber music repertory, and the third and fourth movements have received much attention from critics, musicologists, and historians.

The piece's anticipation of rhythmic techniques have been associated with Elliott Carter, while the independent and asymmetrical part writing has been attributed to Charles Seeger's method of dissonant counterpoint.

In developing his neumatic theory, Seeger characterized the scale as a series of notes derived from neumes and their transformations.

In his theory of neumation, he theorized that the scale, mode, and melody become closely interrelated with each other and can no longer be seen as distinct entities.

The opening measure of the movement feature a scalar ascent that represents the neume, the scale and the melody simultaneously.

This movement provides an example of total organization of many musical features: pitch rests, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, instrumentation, and form.

The pitch classes of Voice 2 are derived from a single ten-note series, which is typical of Crawford's usual melodies.

The independent nature of the first violin can be perceived as "masculine," and despite the conflicting melodies, they still share a sense of cohesion and belonging.

Voice 1 aims to achieve rhythm fluidity by using an assortment of eighths, dotted quarters, ties, triplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets.

In contrast, Voice 2 has a rigid character that is constructed of constant single rhythmic values that are executed through irregular bowing patterns.

Mark Nelson has praised Crawford's inventiveness in adapting both Seeger's theories and the palindrome as a formal device.

After beginning her studies in composition with Charles Seeger in 1929, Crawford became more focused on the contrapuntal procedures in her music, as seen in the string quartet.

In a letter to Seeger in February 1931, she wrote,"I went to the piano and began a one-voiced something in metric form and was rather pleased with it...The next day I took the little monody, which is lyric, and gave it a leggiero pal with a bass voice, and it insisted on becoming a string quartet.

In contrast to her earlier compositions, such as the Diaphonic Suites, which she called "ours", she never indicated anything of that sort regarding the string quartet.

[8] After its first performance by the New World String Quartet on November 13, 1933, the work was proclaimed "original and arresting", and the third movement was singled out as "remarkable.

String Quartet 1931 received a lot of attention in the 1960s, when George Perle published the first analysis of the third and fourth movements.

The composer Eric Salzman wrote an enthusiastic review of the Amati Quartet's recording, titled "Distaff Disk.

John Rockwell wrote in High Fidelity that it was striking how her techniques anticipated later movements, particularly Elliott Carter's independent part-writing and metrical explorations.

The coverage shifted somewhat, so that String Quartet 1931 was no longer the only piece on which Crawford's historical position was based.

In 1986, Mark Nelson analyzed Crawford's String Quartet with regards to Seeger's theories,[9] as did David Nicholls in his book about American experimental music in 1990.

[21] Joseph Straus links the piece to a renewed appreciation of modernism in general, specifically in relation to integral serialism.