Paul Dessau described his Third String Quartet, begun at Laguna Beach near Los Angeles in 1943, as predominantly lyrical. The song-like, melodious main theme of this one-movement work emerges from a series of notes grounded in tonality. A contrapuntally separated little semiquaver figure acquires increasing importance and points the way ahead to the greater rhythmical turbulence of the middle section. Syncopated imitative devices add intensity to the music until all this activity is calmed down again in the extended Coda.
By working names into his music as quotations Dessau pays musical homage to two of his aesthetic forefathers - Bach and Schoenberg - during a creative period spent in exile.

Although Paul Dessau's Second String Quartet is very closely related to twelve-note music, it cannot be said to owe its inspiration to the serial method in the strictest sense. Rene Leibowitz had introduced the composer to the fascinating world of Schoenberg's twelve-note music during his first period of exile in Paris. With this String Quartet Dessau then worked out his own way of playing with the aesthetics of modern composition. Dessau works dodecaphonic constructions into the two lengthy movements - Andante con tenerezza and Adagio - without imposing them in dogmatic fashion. Disciplined thematic work is developed in a densely polyphonic setting to create a tightly structured landscape of laconic sententiousness.