The String Quartet No.3 is a composition for string quartet written in 1947 by Polish Composer Grażyna Bacewicz. The violinist-composer wrote this piece during her stay in Paris following the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and it was later awarded the Polish Ministry of Culture Award in 1955 alongside her Symphony No.4 and Violin Concerto No.3. This quartet was the first to be initially published alongside quartets 4-7 before more recent reprintings of her prior quartets. Historical Context Following the failed operation in Warsaw, Bacewicz and her family temporarily departed from Poland during the violent conflicts of World War II. Upon returning, Warsaw was then occupied by the Germans, causing their authorities to ban the performance of Polish music. This led Bacewicz and others to perform and have their works read during privately held underground concerts. Bacewicz then wrote String Quartet No.3 in the years following her later arrival and subsequent musical establishment in Paris as a renowned soloist. In this contrastingly optimistic period of her life which afforded her a higher degree of creative liberty Bacewicz noted several of the positive experiences she had as both a violinist and composer, remarking the pride in her composition of the quartet, and with respect to her composition of the quartet, that "Paris has some ineffable quality which is favourable to creative work." Analysis Written during Bacewicz' notably neoclassical era of composition, this quartet preceded her later use of Polish folk tunes as seen in her String Quartet No.4. Featuring frequent polyphonic use of contrary motion, interweaving melodic lines, whole tone scales, and chromatic passages, the quartet is more based in triadic harmony than that of her later works which feature attempts at more avant garde compositional techniques such as serialism, though it is still not entirely tonal and contains many gestures and phrases without a traditional cadence. All 3 movements have a key signature with no sharps or flats, however are not particularly in the associated keys of C major or A minor. This can be seen clearly in the opening of the first movement, which arrives at a section which could be considered in D Major, however is notated entirely with accidentals. This work includes detailed markings of bowings, styles, articulations, intended strings on which to play, and expressive gestures such as downward glissandos. Bacewicz distinctly orchestrated large sections of the quartet to harmonically allow the frequent use of open strings and