Berg first studied under Arnold Schoenberg in the autumn of 1904, taking lessons in harmony and counterpoint.
Several draft sketches of sonata movements date from this period and it is thought that Op.
The work underwent alterations for republication in 1920 and further changes were made in 1925 for publication of a "revised edition" (Ibid.).
Although the piece has the nominal key of B minor, Berg makes frequent use of chromaticism, whole-tone scales, and wandering key centers, giving the tonality a very unstable feel, which only resolves in the final few bars.
The structure of the piece is traditional sonata form, with an exposition, development and recapitulation; however, the composition also relies heavily on Arnold Schoenberg's idea of "developing variation", a method to ensure the unity of a piece of music by deriving all aspects of a composition from a single idea.