Webern, ever drawn to pastoral images (and attracted to mountains in particular) was strongly influenced by a tryptich by Segantini entitled ³Alpenlandshaft,² which Webern saw and admired during a trip to Munich in 1902. Segantini¹s paintings inspired Webern to compose one of two string quartets during 1905 (Langsamer Satz was the other). It was completed in August of 1905, but was then edited and altered slightly in September of that same year. The String Quartet is a single movement work, but is divided into three sections, corresponding to Segantini¹s work. It is a progressive and profoundly chromatic work, so much so that it is heralded by some as the true advent of atonality: its pervasive chromaticism effectively undoes any possible traditional harmonic structures. Evident throughout is the influence of Beethoven, as gloom and strife are expressed at the outset of the work, only to be resolved at the end of the quartet with a triumphant finale.



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