Performed to music by Ernst Kÿenek, Two Chants was divided into sections called "Futility" and "Ecstatic Song" and premiered on January 8, 1930, at New York's Maxine Elliott's Theatre. The solo work was performed by Martha Graham in a concert of the Dance Repertory Theatre. Graham joined dancer/choreographers Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and [Helen] Tamiris to form the Dance Repertory Theatre. The goal was "to give annually a season of continuous dance programs which will be representative of the art of dance in American and will give native artists an outlet for their creative work." The New York Herald Tribune (January 9, 1930) noted it was a "successful projection in her standard vein." Dance Magazine (April 1930) cautiously remarked, "the second ["Ecstatic Song" ] was by all means the best, but neither, in form or substance, has as yet arrived among the immortals on her habitual list."