Ostensibly a musical depiction of nature, the work conveys something of the composer's turbulent emotional state arising from the disintegration of his marriage and his love affair with the pianist Harriet Cohen.
The anonymous critic in The Times wrote, "The whole thing impressed us by a skilful and rather stagey picture of 'the woods so wild' and rather too drawn out for the actual value of its musical ideas.
The composer disavowed any programmatic content, declaring that the work "may be taken as an impression of the dank and stormy music of nature in the late autumn, but the whole piece and its origins are connected with certain rather troublous experiences I was going through myself at the time....".
[4] The analyst John Palmer comments that despite the large forces, Bax's orchestration is among the most subtle in his entire oeuvre: "In the opening moments, quivering woodwinds, harps, and muted strings present a delicately shifting array of colors".
[4] After an opening that evokes a strong breeze, with harp glissandi and a swift and agile woodwind theme, a muted solo cello moves the melodic content forward.