Coming to maturity in an era when the main dispute in music was between the camps adhering to Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, the British composer Hubert Parry (1848-1918) followed Brahms' example. This was not out of opposition to Wagner, who he regarded as a genius, but because Parry desired to be an instrumental or symphonic composer and regarded Brahms's way as being most relevant to that kind of music. Examination of this twenty-three-minute symphony, however, suggests that its major model might have been Brahms' mentor, Robert Schumann.

The symphony follows the form of Schumann's Fourth Symphony (in its final version) in that it is written as four linked movements presenting a continuous musical argument and developing cyclical ideas which run through all of the movements. This unusual form led it to be renamed Symphonische Phantasie (Symphonic Fantasia) , when published after Parry's death in 1918. Parry's original name was later restored at the insistence of Ralph Vaughan Williams and other authorities who recognized the piece as a true symphony.

The symphony has a philosophical program. It represents the progress of a human soul. First there is a revolt against the tragedy of life. The second movement is the healing hope offered by human love. The third represents the undefeatable human instinct for play and humor. The hopeful theme of the first movement comes back to prominence in a new form to begin the final movement. It is nearly quenched by tragedy, but in the rich conclusion, in a major key, bespeaks healing. In style is in a richly orchestrated post-Brahmsian mode; by now the music world had found ways to reconcile the once-shocking harmonies of Wagner's musical language with the classic instrumental structures of Brahms.

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