[1] He composed Langsamer Satz for string quartet in June 1905,[2] three years before his first work with an opus number, the Passacaglia for orchestra.

[1] The work was lost but rediscovered in the early 1960s when Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer found manuscripts in an attic in Perchtoldsdorf.

[3] The piece, in C minor,[1] is still composed in the tradition of Johannes Brahms, especially in matters of sonority and rhetoric, while special effects such as tremolo sul ponticello are new, and a precursor of the String Quartet, Op.

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.

A reviewer from Gramophone wrote that the quartet was played "breathtakingly clean, like mountain air" and was able to evoke a flower meadow.