 Korngold began sketching the work in the spring of 1912 (about a year after his childhood mentor, Gustav Mahler, died), just before his 15th birthday and finished the sketches in August 1912.The orchestration of it dragged on for another year, until September 1913, by which time Korngold had composed his Violin Sonata, Op.6, and had begun his first opera "Der Ring des Polykrates", Op.