William Walton's ballet, The First Shoot, was composed for use as a single scene within a 1935 opera revue staged by C.B. Cochran under the title Follow the Sun. Running about ten minutes, Walton's music assumes a tone similar to that heard in his famous extravaganza for ensemble and narrator, Façade (1922). The music is in turns boisterous and serene, and always ironically so. In fact, the degree of caricature found in this piece would seldom appear again in Walton's work until perhaps his delightfully overboard music for the operetta The Bear (1967). The music follows loosely the story of an Edwardian hunting party. In the midst of all the fun, one of the party is accidentally mistaken for a pheasant and shot. The rather macabre plot finds little emotional resonance of any substance in the music, however, which is lighthearted nearly all the way through.

The original score for the work no longer exists. However, Walton did leave an arrangement for brass band, and from this Christopher Palmer has created an arrangement for orchestra that appears on the recordings of Walton's complete works undertaken by Chandos Records. It is hard to say to what extent this modern version replicates Walton's intent. By and large, however, Palmer's orchestrations seem to capture the lively spirit of Walton's early years.

The ballet is cast in five movements. The first is extrovertedly jazzy, with lots of faux-blue notes in the melody. The repeated bass line of stepwise ascents with which it begins is countered at the end by noisy descending lines. The second movement is short, delicate, and mysterious. Palmer's orchestration adds little exaggerations like portamenti and glissandi to enhance Walton's score.

The central movement is a moderately paced waltz. A slow introduction is followed by a more upbeat but still reserved material. It should be noted that Walton recycled this portion of the ballet for use in his score for the wartime film Went the Day Well from 1942, and again in the ball scene from his score to the 1970 film The Three Sisters.

The fourth movement begins without pause. The mood is carnivalesque, with boisterous appoggiaturas and a quick pace in the introduction; the subsequent material settles into a more relaxed tempo, with a jaunty stride bass underscoring a light, slightly smarmy melody. The final movement is a celebratory Vivace, with playful chromatic inflections set atop a bouncy bass line.

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