String Quartet No. 1 by Walter Piston is a chamber-music work composed in 1933.
Piston's first string quartet was premiered on March 7, 1933, by the Chardon Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. It is a charming but by no means bland work that later became a favorite of the Juilliard Quartet.[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".[2].
The quartet is in three movements:
The first movement is in sonata-allegro form in a mixed C major/C minor. The harmonic language stresses chords based on perfect fourths, and features the chromatic, dissonant counterpoint characteristic of Piston's early period.[3] A nightmarish quality is produced by the approach to the F minor second, waltz-like theme through C♯ minor.[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.[3] This movement especially features the cello.[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.[1]