Basner appeals to the genre of quartet in the very beginning of his creative way. He generates his Quartet No 1, op. 1 (1948) as the composition of one movement, marked with intensive development, when the music resembles the inner monologue, just unrestrained random utterance. Its imaginative sphere is defined as the purity of aspirations.
Basner adheres to the structure, which may be defined as the principle of thematic concentrated elaboration, peculiar for D. D. Shostokovich, whom he considered to be his Teacher. This principle is distinct for the succession of musical “events”. Therefore the main features of the quartet, such as laconic thinking and utmost dramatic expression, should have found their evolution in the composer's chamber-instrumental creation.