Lacking any detailed program, The Bard is the briefest of all Sibelius' orchestral tone poems. None of the usual elements of the genre are to be found in the work—drama, development, and powerful climax are all absent from this brooding, introspective essay. It is a transitional work that hints at the unique flavor of the composer's later works.

The Bard is constructed from simple, fragmentary motivic strands that remain undeveloped and ultimately unresolved. Although the piece can be divided into two sections, the distinction between the two is extremely slight. Things heat up ever so slightly in the second section, but in the end returns to the same vague melancholy that opened the work. Perhaps the only tangible musical reference to the title is the role the harp plays in defining the character and mood of The Bard's musical texture. The tone poem opens with a sequence of descending chords played by the harp, with quiet sixteenth note commentary from the viola section. Throughout the piece the harp serves to demarcate key moments in the score.

From the same pivotal period of Sibelius' career as the Symphony No. 4, The Dryad, and Oceanides, The Bard reveals a composer in the process of redefining his methods, and examples of both earlier and later Sibelius can be seen. Orchestrationally, the academic, somewhat block-like methods of the composer's younger days are giving way to the thinner, more contrapuntal techniques of his later masterworks. His growing predilection for syncopation in one voice, set against a backdrop of rhythmic stability, is apparent in The Bard, as well.

The Bard is the type of music that always has—and likely always will—provoke heated difference of opinion from scholars and listeners alike. Of the haunting intensity of the work's atmosphere, however, there can be no doubt.

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