It is a characteristic of American composer Charles E. Ives (1874-1954) that he left multiple versions of several pieces, and had several projects that he did not bring to a definitive form.

There are two main explanations for this situation. One is that he grew up the son of the Danbury, Connecticut bandmaster, where it was one of his father's tasks to adapt existing music rapidly for whatever changes in membership in the band happened.

The other is that until to performance was likely, and in the absence of any real prospect for getting a particular piece published, there was no real reason to undertake the laborious (and generally uncreative) work of making clean fair scores of a composition.

Ives' approach to poetry was unusual for a composer. Most often it directly inspired instrumental, not vocal, music, though Ives often wrote words in under a solo wind instrument.

In 1918, after his serious heart attack (a by-product of his diabetes, most likely) he began to gather his songs into the self-published volume that would become 114 Songs. He wrote some new songs for the publication. Many of these were written from such instrumental works, with the melodies finally becoming parts for a singer, and the other instrumental parts reduced for piano from the usually more complex scoring.

After he published 114 Songs he began planning several suites of the original short pieces. He called these suites "Sets," a term that became the most common musical designation in Ives' titles, aside from the "Studies" for piano.

All three movements of the "Set no. 3 [for Small Orchestra]" have their counterpart in the 114 Songs. (It is necessary to specify "for Small Orchestra" to distinguish this set from the "Third Orchestral Set.") This is, in effect, Ives' "Robert Underwood Johnson" set. Johnson was a leading man of letters who was very well known in the post 1900 were during which Ives conceived the original music. (Johnson also wrote the text that became the song and orchestral movement "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," part of "Three Places in New England, a key work in Ives' development.)

It is in three movements. The two outer movements, "Adagio Sostenuto" (1902 or 1912) and the final movement, "Premonitions" (1918) were turned into songs (At Sea, Kz 120 and Premonitions, Kz 132) for 114 Songs. On the other hand, ives turned the song "Luck and Work," Kz 95, into the middle movement of the set.

The set is in Ives' favorite slow-fast-slow format. "Luck and Work" is very short and barely has time to make an emotional impact. The other two are examples of Ives slow, visionary music and are quite effective.

Gunther Schuller and David Porter have both edited the work separately, with Porter working for the Charles Ives Society. It calls for about twenty-six strings, five woodwinds, piano, harp, light percussion, and glockenspiel.

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