Martinů was strongly drawn to the string quartet form from his childhood.
He composed his first quartet, based on the poem Tři jezdci by Czech poet Jaroslav Vrchlický, at the age of eight.
[1] However, Martinů's juvenile works remain forgotten, are now archive material, and it is difficult to reconstruct them.
In 1925 Martinů intended to have the composition performed in Paris, with the Ševčík Quartet.
His typical individual style is not yet apparent, but the quartet contains the unquestionable quality and counts among the interesting examples of the composer's early chamber works.