These six songs, settings of poems by Georg Trakl, were written during the transition from atonality to twelve-tone serialism. The songs are scored for various combinations of clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, and cello, with only the first and last songs using the full ensemble. Webern was composing very little at this time in his life, as he was busy with conducting in Prague and with the Society for Private Musical Performances. The six songs are a cycle, though they were written out of order and over a period of four years. Many of the songs feature a four- or five-part contrapuntal texture, with the voice becoming an equal part of the overall texture. The songs are extremely difficult to perform, and represent a leap forward, in terms of Webern¹s skill at orchestration, from the Op.. 13 songs.

The six songs reveal the influence of Arnold Schoenberg, and Webern admitted in correspondence to him that he had in mind Schoenberg¹s Pierrot Lunaire when composing the Op. 14 songs.

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