How did Anton Webern compress musical expression in works such as Five Movements for String Quartet?

In his works from the period surrounding 1909, including Five Movements for String Quartet, Anton Webern developed a style characterized by the compression of the highest intensity of expression within the greatest formal brevity.1

This approach, often described as "aphoristic," marked a departure from the expansive forms of the late Romantic era. To achieve this extreme conciseness, Webern utilized several novel stylistic elements:1

• Atonality: By abandoning a governing tonal center, he allowed pitches to function independently, creating new ways to organize musical tension and form.12
• Fragmented Texture: His music features melodic and harmonic fragmentation, often utilizing wide intervallic leaps and ascetic, sparse textures.1
• Dissonance and Timbre: He employed unusual uses of dissonance and varied instrumental timbres to convey expression.1
• Pointillism: His style is noted for being pointillistic, focusing on individual sounds and precise, sensitive diction.1

These techniques allowed Webern to distill musical ideas into highly concentrated forms, reflecting a shift toward a new aesthetic that prioritized extreme brevity and structural intensity.1