Webern composed these three songs in 1924, but they were not performed until 1953, eight years after his death. They were the first pieces he wrote using the then-new 12-tone method of composition created by his mentor, Arnold Schoenberg. Songs make up much of Webern's oeuvre, and it is interesting to note that despite the new technique employed in the Traditional Rhymes, they actually differ very little from his earlier songs in terms of their overall sonorous effect.

The Three Traditional Rhymes are scored for soprano soloist and three instruments and rather neatly exemplify Webern's compositional style: they feature extremely wide leaps in the vocal line, disjunct and angular instrumental writing, and are pervasively linear in texture. Like many of Webern's songs, they are very expressive and evocative, but also notoriously difficult to sing. The rhymes themselves are short, quasi-religious poems: the first is an admonishment of sinners, the second a kind of prayer to the Virgin, the third a plea to Jesus for salvation. Webern's next work, his Op. 18 songs of 1925, would be three more settings of folk texts.

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