Webern's wrote his op. 1 in 1908, having completed his studies with Schoenberg, and it can be viewed as a kind of diploma piece. In his lessons, Schoenberg endeavoured to encourage Webern, who otherwise possessed an excessively romantic temperament, to aim for formal discipline in his work. This was ultimately successful as this orchestral work proves which uses an old baroque technique of variations over a ground bass. The theme contains only eight notes. It could even be a true passacalgia bass – with one note missing. After the D, C sharp, B opening, Webern writes, in place of the expected A, a G sharp. This unusual procedure makes the basic melody truly interesting (it continues in traditional fashion F-E-A-D).
 After the bass has been introduced, 23 variations follow. Webern naturally does not deny his own nature, and among the variations are some romantically flavoured melodies and others boasting unusual tone colours. It is evident that the young Webern had not only studied Baroque masterpieces intensively, but also the scores of Schoenberg, Mahler, and even Brahms, whose fourth symphony in E minor has a final movement in the form of a passacaglia.