Written in 1913 for the 1914 Norwich Festival, Spring Fire is one of the first real program works from Bax's pen. It was dedicated to Henry Wood and although the première was postponed mainly because of the extreme technical difficulty of the piece, it was rescheduled for 1916, only to be cancelled due to a certain unpleasantness then taking place in Europe. Eventually, it was December 1970 before the first performance took place, under the auspices of the Bax Society. It is scored for a typically large orchestra and in the words of the composer's own program note is intended to evoke "...the first uprush and impulse of Spring in the woods."

Really more of a symphony than a tone poem, Spring Fire takes some of its inspiration from the currently popular Atalanta in Calydon by Algernon Charles Swinburne. The opening section, which is very reminiscent of Granville Bantock's Pagan Symphony, contains a haunting cello melody which will later be used to good effect in the Cello Sonata. A theme prominently displayed in the clarinets later in the work will also be reused later—rather eccentrically in the music written for the Royal Wedding in 1947. Although less polished and displaying less finesse than, for instance, The Garden of Fand, Spring Fire shows much of the successful balancing of form and structure which will be an important part of Bax's later orchestral works—especially the symphonies.

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