This short movement for solo piano was discovered, along with the Sonatensatz (Rondo), in 1965. It has been speculated that both pieces belong to what would have been a three movement piano piece (fragmentary sketches of these movements have been found on the same manuscript pages). It is thought that this piece was likely composed in 1906, not long after Webern first heard Schoenberg¹s Chamber Symphony of that same year: Webern, discussing the Chamber Symphony in his diary, mentions a piano piece that he his working on which shares the same tonal centre, C, as the Satz fur Klavier.

The Satz fur Klavier reaches what Webern calls ³the farthest limits of tonality,² with its pervasively chromatic language, and its Wagnerian ³suspended tonality²: harmonic resolution is delayed for so long that traditional harmonic relationships are merely hinted at.

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