It was premiered on April 8, 1938, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
The first movement begins with a rare example, for Piston, of an ostinato, presented in the pizzicato basses.
This ostinato consists of nine of the twelve chromatic notes, and the remaining three are found in the theme played above it.
The ostinato also returns at the end of the movement, and its chromatic nature helps make a transition to the tritone-related key of F-sharp for the second movement, whose thematic material is also derived from the ostinato.
The finale is in rondo form, with the main theme once again taken from the beginning of that ostinato, only in inversion.