3 is the third of six chamber-music works in the string quartet medium by the American composer Milton Babbitt.
On first acquaintance the quartet may seem to consist of a welter of unrelated detail, with few if any short-term patterns.
However, contrasting speeds and articulations (arco and pizzicato) gradually bring the shifting relationships of the details and the connected aspects of the larger sections into clear focus, and the composition begins to assume a shape of intricacy and beauty.
[3] It falls into four large sections, created by the pitch structure, each of which is divided into eight subsections.
72), subdivision of the basic unit into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 12 subunits produces eight "subtempos", each of which defines a subsection of each rhythmic section.