Bax's brother Clifford was editor of a quarterly magazine, Orpheus, to which the author Herbert Farjeon, better known as a writer of revue sketches and light verse, contributed.
Farjeon's short story – he called it a "prose-poem" – "The Happy Forest", was described as a "Nature Poem" and depicted an idyllic rustic scene populated by galant shepherds and a satyr.
[4] The opening is marked "Vivacious and fantastic", and features muted horns and harp, playing at a moderate tempo at first, but the music quickly gathers momentum.
"[4] The Times observed that the piece is "an affair of colour and movement, yet it is no ordinary spring idyll, but something fantastic … an appropriate setting for a German fairy tale in which the trees are alive and anything might happen".
[3] Although the score has many programmatic touches relating to Farjeon's text, Foreman writes that enjoyment of the piece does not require any knowledge of them by the listener.