Bax composed his first choral work, Fatherland, in 1907, revising it in 1934. The text is from Fänrik Staal's Saagner (Ensign Staal's Sagas) by the Finnish-Swedish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. From this series of Swedish poems, Bax extracted one, Vaart Land (Our Land), and may have set the original Swedish test before he made a translation, which his brother, Clifford, then molded into a poetic version suitable for setting to music. Two verses from this same poem, set in 1848 by Fredrik Pacius, now comprise the Finnish national anthem.

Bax's interest in Scandinavian literature developed when he was a teenager. During a visit to Norway with his mother and brother Bax began reading Swedish poetry, an enterprise undertaken most likely under the influence of his friend, Arne von Erpecum, the dedicatee of Fatherland. Of the text, Bax wrote that "although these poems...have a very particular local significance, it is clear that the latter might appropriately voice the sentiments of any small oppressed nationality." Surely, Bax had Ireland in mind.

One of Bax's earliest publications, Fatherland, was printed by Novello in 1909 as part of the Society of British Composers' Avison Edition. That same year, on September 25, the Welsh Choral Union and its orchestra, with John Coates singing the tenor part, performed the piece in Liverpool's' Philharmonic Hall under the baton of Harry Evans. It was only the third time Bax heard one of his own pieces for orchestra.

In his program note for the work Bax mentions a strolling singer "chanting by a smoky hearth on some northern winter night and surrounded by an entranced audience of young and old." He goes on to mention the increasing emotional intensity of the evening; finally the assembled people, "with linked hand and eyes flashing," sing the song of the coming freedom of the fatherland. While revising the piece in 1934, Bax replaced an extended orchestra interlude in the middle of the piece with a connective passage of only ten measures.

Bax's music follows the general outline of his program. Only ten minutes in length, the piece becomes increasingly busy and thick as instruments and chorus join in. Dramatically, the tenor enters with the patriotic main theme, setting the text, "O Fatherland, my Fatherland, O glorious word, ring forth!" The melody's invigorating leaps that bound skyward show that Bax had a firm grasp of the style of the national hymn—many of these, including like Fatherland, are difficult to sing. Until the determined, powerful close at the end of the piece, the chorus echoes the tenor's text and melody.

Bax composed his national song for Ireland based on a Swedish text that is the Finnish national anthem while he was staying in Dresden, Germany. Ironic as this might seem, it provides insight into Bax's unique twist on the nationalist idea.

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