The work is even more harmonically adventurous and contrapuntally complex than Bartók's previous two string quartets and explores a number of extended instrumental techniques, including sul ponticello (playing with the bow as close as possible to the bridge), col legno (playing with the wood rather than the hair of the bow), and glissandi (sliding from one note to another).

It has often been suggested that Bartók was inspired to write the piece after hearing a performance of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite (1926) in 1927.

The piece is the most tightly constructed of Bartók's six string quartets, the whole deriving from a relatively small amount of thematic material integrated into a single continuous structure.

It is also Bartók's shortest quartet, with a typical performance lasting around fifteen minutes.

The piece was premiered on 19 February 1929 by the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet in London's Wigmore Hall.