Martinů himself considered the String Quartet in E flat major, H 103 (1917) to be a representative work in the field of chamber music, although in the year of its composition the twenty-seven-year-old Martinů had completed more works than others would write in their entire lives.
Three external impulses played a significant role in its composition and final shape: firstly, Martinů had at his disposal an ensemble consisting of professionals, members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; secondly, there was the vision of an award in a competition of the Czech Chamber Society; and last but not least, there was a strong desire to present this work to the admired Josef Suk. But the inspiration was love, namely love for Gabriela Čechová, the charming wife of the evangelical pastor Čech from Borová. This is also undoubtedly the origin of the choice of the song "Nearer, My God, to Thee", popular in evangelical circles at the time, as the central theme of the entire quartet. [...]
Apart from a few pages of sketches, only one incomplete autograph score exists. The entire second movement is missing, the third movement is incomplete at the end, and the fourth movement, which has nothing to do with the work and belongs only to the following "French" string quartet, is incorrectly added to it. The manuscript of the second movement was found in the PMB in Polička, where it was still stored under the misleading title 'Largo religioso for string quartet'. [...]
The unusual and unique in the context of Martinů's works is perhaps explained only by the fact that at the time of the composition of the String Quartet the composer was playing the above mentioned song "Nearer, My God, to Thee", the central theme of the work, on the organ at the church in Borová. It is therefore possible that he had the organ setting of this song in his head when composing it. The fact that there are a surprisingly large number of 'non-musical' or 'non-string' parts in the instrumental voices would suggest this. Their typesetting, on the other hand, is purely piano or just organ.
Behind the rhythmic complexity of the work one can suspect the role of Reger, whose quartets were often performed in this country at the beginning of the 20th century. Almost continuously, Martinů combines various rhythmic patterns in the quartet in E flat major - especially the triplet rhythm with dotted eighth notes as an accompaniment to the melody played in unison in the other two instruments. [...]
In addition to beautiful melodies, full of lyricism and warmth, based on the clear sonic imagery of the four string instruments, there are themes in the work whose full expression would only be made possible by their re-instrumentation. [...] The weaknesses of the work, to which one could add the excessive length of the composition and the sometimes very unmediated or "looking" transitions between the individual sections, are, however, compensated by Martinů with immeasurable melodic richness. By far the most beautiful and independent melodic idea is the tonally slightly blurred, or rather intertwined between several notes, motive from the third movement, whose loveliness and unusual cadencing already anticipates the mature Martinů.
The reconstruction of the String Quartet in E flat major was made by Aleš Březina in 1989 as part of his thesis "Bohuslav Martinů's Early Quartets". The work was performed in Zurich by the Drs-Quartett in 1994.
Aleš Březina. Premiéra neznáméno smyčcového kvartetu Bohuslava Martinů. Hudební rozhledy, ročník 47, číslo 12, s. 4–6 [shorted].