The Boyd Neel String Orchestra had made its reputation (as well as that of the young composer Benjamin Britten) when it premiered the latter's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at Europe's biggest contemporary music festival in 1937. The orchestra stepped up its commissioning of new music, and engaged John Ireland (1879-1962) one of England's better-known composers, to write a new string orchestra work.

Ireland, a composer who was short of self-confidence, was in the habit of whining about how hard it was to write extended compositions. Therefore it is hard to know what to make of his complaint that it was virtually impossible to compose music in the "present world-atmosphere" (it was August, 1939 and war would break out within the month). Was this his usual griping, or was he genuinely impeded by events? At any rate, it is possible to read into this piece the darkening of hope. The introduction to the first movement is glowering and increasingly threatening, while the middle movement is, overtly, a funeral lament. The piece therefore has a depth and stature that contradicts its title.

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