While staying in Morar, Bax completed the score of his Overture to a Picaresque Comedy on October 13, 1930. Murdoch published the full score in London in 1932 with a dedication to Hamilton Harty, who had conducted the first performance of the piece on November 19, 1931, in Manchester, with the Hallé Orchestra. Three months later, Harty gave a performance of the work in London's Queen's Hall. Bax scored the nine-minute Overture to a Picaresque Comedy for three flutes with piccolo, two oboes with English horn, three clarinets with bass clarinet, two bassoons with contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, percussion (requiring three players), celesta, and strings.

The Overture to a Picaresque Comedy is one of just a few of Bax's works that are unrepresentative of his general output. It is light, capricious, and lively without ever slipping into a rapid tempo such as presto or vivace. A feverish, youthful energy pervades the brief piece, which also shows Bax leaving behind the great contrasts that constitute his method of musical argument in the first three symphonies.

At the center of the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy is a lilting waltz that seems to be a parody of the Viennese waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. More accurately, it is a parody of Richard Strauss' waltzes in Der Rosenkavalier of 1911; it composed by Bax as such in connection with a bet. Bax, therefore, parodies Johann Strauss through Richard Strauss. The overall effect of the Picaresque Overture is that of an "uncharacteristic pastiche," as Harriet Cohen once described it. Gong crashes and a rattle punctuate the score, as do occasional figures on the xylophone that add a touch of humor. One ebullient idea leads to another, carried along by transparent orchestration in which the entire group rarely plays.

Ironically, perhaps, Overture to a Picaresque Comedy was performed relatively often and in several cities, as were Mediterranean and the Romantic Overture. All three are equally unrepresentative of Bax's oeuvre.

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