Music is a unifying force, and yet is expressed in so many differing ways. This thought, central to the National Federated Music Clubs, is the basis of the composition. The quartet opens with unison pitches in fanfare-like manner. Gradually wider and wider intervals emerge leading to the opening theme in the first violin accompanied by sustained fifths in the cello with the second violin and viola offering syncopated pizzicato chords. Then the cello and first violin exchange roles. Finally the theme is heard in unison by the two inner instruments with the outer ones adding the punctuated chords. Descending pizzicatos lead to sustained chords by the three lower strings while the first violin plays a lengthy cadenza-like melody. The final section is in fugato-style using the melody of the NFMC national hymn, “Lasst uns erfreuen,” as thematic material. The ending is the opening in retrograde, the final note being in unison as it was in the beginning.