The Four Quartets op. 92 were composed in 1884 during Brahms’ summer’s stay in Mürzzuschlag (Styria). The opening piece, however, was a revision of an earlier vocal quartet composed in 1877. Brahms had announced this to his friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg on 13 November 1877 as “a bad joke on music paper” with which he was reacting to her reproach regarding an earlier lied (op. 71 No. 4) with an ironic text insertion before the beginning of the reprise. In the revision of 1884, Brahms signif...