Completed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1942, and revised in 1954, Elliott Carter's Symphony No. 1 for small orchestra has three contrasting movements. The first movement, marked "moderately, wistfully", is the most advanced of the three - the movement is a study in contrast between pastoral and full, aggressive timbres, between differing rhythm units, and between tonal centers. Bright yet pastoral string chords open the work followed by complex interplay of lively, syncopated dance-like themes. This interweaving gradually fades into a slightly dreamier landscape. Again, the dance themes return somewhat more aggressively, fade away, and return again with fuller orchestration. The rhythm has a sequential beat pattern of 3 + 2 that is superimposed, compressed and sped up, as well as stretched out and slowed down. The harmony likewise quickly alternates between the keys of B-natural and B-flat, and often creates rich, vertical harmonies.

Marked "slowly, gravely", the second movement opens with a hymn-like theme; rich and thoughtful in style. The theme never stops and continually evolves, becoming march-like, then pastoral, with echoes of the dotted march rhythms in the high strings. Fragments of the variations are subtlety combined and layered. The single "grand line" beginning becomes a polyphonic orchestration with smooth phrases, dotted rhythms, and fleeting figures all at once. This develops into a rich and dissonant skein of several long lines, the whole resembling the resonance of a noble, tragic history. The movement ends peacefully with a sustained major chord.

The third movement, marked "vivaciously", incorporates some material from the composer's 1939 ballet Pocahontas, and contains many elements of Americana-like square-dance tunes, as well as jazz solos for clarinet. The opening line, possibly a version of Mozart's Piano Concerto in d minor k. 466, features quick, laconic string lines with flowing winds underneath, inscribing the "happy" texture with a certain grace and buoyancy that distinguishes it from other more traditional scherzo-type finales. This approach is used throughout the movement together with many touches of comic contrasts, especially in the ending fugato. A highly energetic ending features a toe-tapping combination of the fiddle rhythms and jazz inflections.

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