The first of the six string quartets dates from 1814, just as the present quartet movement, which is being published for the first time. The important violinist composer BAILLOT, a friend of CHERUBINIS, had founded a string quartet and brought the works of the Viennese classical composers to Paris. All the same, CHERUBINI found in his works his own musical style that seemed strange to some of his contemporaries. In 1828 followed the considerably shorter Morceau pour l'album musical in E flat major.