Hungarian composer and pianist Bela Bartók bases his dissonant, elegant melodies on Hungarian folk music.

He had begun composing the Miraculous Mandarin, a sordid modern story of prostitution, robbery, and murder, in 1918, but it had not been performed until 1926 because of its sexual content.

He had written his third and fourth string quartets in 1927–28.

The String Quartet No.

5 (1934) is written in somewhat more traditional style.