[2][1] In the period between 1906 and 1916, Ives formed a professional partnership with his friend and business colleague, Julian S. Myrick, to start what eventually developed into a highly successful insurance company and married Harmony Twichell, thus moving out of "Poverty Flat", a bachelor's apartment that he shared with his friends at Yale University where he tried out different rhythms and harmonies at the piano.

Even though the date of the orchestration is unknown and the holograph of that version is presumed to be lost, Ives's fair copy of the work allowed him to premiere it at the Alvin Theater, in New York City, on April 22, 1934.

This performance took place in a concert of music and dance organized by Martha Graham and her group and sponsored by the Pan American Association of Composers.

The second public performance of this composition took place in an all-Ives Young People's concert on January 22, 1967, at Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall, in New York City.

The revised orchestrated version premiered in 1934, however, is scored for a chamber orchestra, consisting of a flute, a B-flat clarinet, a bassoon, a first and second B-flat trumpet, a trombone, timpani, an optional gong, a snare drum, a triangle, a piano and a small string section, consisting of three first violins, three second violins, two violas, two cellos, and two double basses.

This piece is well-known for juxtaposing non-tonal and tonal rhythms, which attempt to resemble the sounds produced during a parade by a marching band while the engine of a fire truck speeds up or slows down.