Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement)

When Webern first approached Schoenberg for composition lessons in Vienna in 1904 the most substantial work he had to show him was the recently completed idyll for orchestra, Im Sommerwind. Although it impressed Schoenberg enough to convince him that he should accept the young composer as his pupil, his immediate advice was that Webern should first concentrate on smaller forms, such as the string quartet. The Langsamer Satz, the String Quartet in one movement and Rondo for string quartet were all written for lessons with Schoenberg between 1905 and 1906. They reveal a sensitive romantic temperament, a remarkable ear for instrumental colour and - even at this stage - a highly accomplished technique.

The earliest of those quartet pieces, a slow movement headed Langsam, mit bewegtem Ausdruck, begins tenderly in C minor and ends very quietly but rapturously in E flat major - under the influence, clearly, of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. Since a set of parts was discovered with the manuscript score, it is reasonable to assume that it was first performed, though almost certainly in private, soon after it was written. The first public performance was given by the University of Washington String Quartet in Seattle in 1962.