[1] Aaron Copland singled out this quartet, praising its "acidulous opening movement, the poetic mood painting of its second, and its breezy finale", all of which "sets a superb standard of taste and of expert string writing".
The harmonic language stresses chords based on perfect fourths, and features the chromatic, dissonant counterpoint characteristic of Piston's early period.
[1] The second movement is a simple ABA in E minor, with the strings muted in the brooding, chromatic outer sections, and an unmuted fugato in sharply dotted rhythms in the central part.
[1] The rondo finale is based throughout on a repeated-note motive of three sixteenth notes, and the first subject recalls the quartet's opening movement by alternating C and D♭.
[3] The string writing here is expert and spectacular, with some disorienting harmonic twists.