Edward Gregson's String Quartet was commissioned by The Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society in celebration of its 100th year. The premier performance took place on the 14th of January 2015 performed by the Navarra Quartet at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. The piece is divided into three distinct movements each developing and changing what has come before. When commenting on his compositional process for String Quartet Gregson noted that he desired to return to the classical principles of Beethoven and Bartok deciding to include extended sonata variation and rondo forms.