Commissioned by and dedicated to 'the American people' for the 1939 World's Fair, the Seventh Symphony pales in comparison with its majestic predecessor. Judged in isolation, it is a secure work, benefiting from the technical lessons the composer had learned throughout the cycle of seven symphonies. The first movement returns to a motif from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde that Bax had experimented with much earlier in his career, and the seascape nature of the slow movement is more controlled and more successful than in the Fourth Symphony. The final movement of the Seventh Symphony is in effect a set of seven variations—Bax unable to resist even here playing on mysticism, with the supposedly magical significance of the number seven!

The Epilogue is perhaps the calmest and most serene music Bax ever wrote and is perfectly fitting for the end of his great symphonic cycle. In fact, the whole symphony can be seen as a sort of Epilogue in itself. Coming after the Sixth Symphony's powerful statements, the Seventh is a work of finality and acceptance rather than one of wistful longing.

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