| Langsamer Satz | |
|---|---|
| Chamber music byAnton Webern | |
 Webern in 1912 | |
| Composed | 1905 |
| Scoring | string quartet |
Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement) is a composition forstring quartet in onemovement byAnton Webern, written in 1905.
Webern was from 1904 a pupil ofArnold Schoenberg in Vienna.[1] He composedLangsamer Satz for string quartet in June 1905,[2] three years before his first work with an opus number, thePassacaglia for orchestra.[3] The same year, he finished his first year as Schoenberg's pupil and also completed his dissertation inmusicology aboutHeinrich Isaac.[2]
In the spring of 1905, Webern had hiked with his cousin Wilhelmine Mortl, and future wife, outside Vienna, and fallen in love with her. The music is believed to have been inspired by his feelings for her.[2][1][4] Webern had planned to compose a full string quartet but completed only this movement.[1]
The work was lost but rediscovered in the early 1960s when Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer found manuscripts in an attic inPerchtoldsdorf. It was published byCarl Fischer.[1]
The music ofLangsamer Satz is markedLangsam, mit bewegtem Ausdruck (Slow, with moving expression).[3] The piece, inC minor,[1] is still composed in the tradition ofJohannes Brahms, especially in matters of sonority and rhetoric, while special effects such astremolo sul ponticello are new, and a precursor of the String Quartet, Op. 5, written in 1909.[3]
The style compares to Schoenberg's late-RomanticVerklärte Nacht. Described as "a love song to the woman he would later marry",[2] the music is very expressive, portraying yearning, "dramatic turmoil" and peaceful tranquility.[1] The duration is given as eight minutes.[1]
Langsamer Satz was recorded in 2018 by the Airis Quartet in a collection with string quartets byKarl Amadeus Hartmann.[5] It was recorded in 2019 by the Arod Quartet, together with works by Schoenberg andAlexander von Zemlinsky. A reviewer fromGramophone wrote that the quartet was played "breathtakingly clean, like mountain air" and was able to evoke a flower meadow.[4]
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