String Quartets No. 1 & 5

String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 are compositions for string quartet by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, completed in 1908 and 1934 respectively. They trace Bartók's development from late-Romantic and folk-inflected lyricism toward a more modernist idiom, characterised by increased dissonance, complex rhythms and inventive string textures that mark important stages in his compositional career.