Bax's original version of Paean for piano was composed in 1920 and published by Murdoch in London in 1929 with a dedication to pianist Frank Merrick. Both Merrick and Harriet Cohen recorded the piece many years later. When Bax was commissioned to provide an orchestral work for the Sir Henry Wood Jubilee of 1938, he decided to expand his Paean for the large forces, including organ, he knew would be available for the occasion.

Bax dated his manuscript of the orchestrated version of Paean "14 April 1938." As part of the Jubilee, this was first performed on May 24, 1938, in London's Royal Albert Hall, under the baton of Malcolm Sargent. There exists a further transcription of Paean, for organ, made in 1949, by William Barr.

Bax scored Paean for a typically large orchestra, including three flutes with piccolo, three oboes, two clarinets with bass clarinet, two bassoons with contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (with gong and bells), and organ. Only three minutes in length, Paean's harmonic language is Bax's usual blend of borrowed and original elements, with chromatic harmonies creating intense expression.

Formally, the piece is a passacaglia based on a short, fanfare-like ostinato in a march rhythm that first sounds in the horns. As the insistent ostinato moves to other brass instruments, the trombones present another, more lyrical melody that becomes the contrasting tune of the piece. The ostinato then passes from one family of instruments to another, with decorative flourishes swirling around it. In the second half of the piece, the ostinato slows, allowing the music to become more grandiose until the noisy, pompous close, at which point the ostinato has slowed almost beyond recognition.

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Sir Arnold Bax possessed one of the most individual musical styles of early twentieth-century England. Through the use of chromaticism and rich harmonies, he drove tonality to its outer limits, but never destroyed it. His style was a mixture of Neo-Romanticism and impressionism, bringing to mind composers such as Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), and Sergey Rachmaninov. Bax's creative output included concertos, symphonic tone poems, chamber music,

symphonies, vocal and choral music, and film scores such as the 1948 classic Oliver Twist. The symphonic poems The Garden of Fand (1913-16) and Tintagel (1917-19) are probably his most popular works.

Bax's solo piano piece Paen is a passacaglia, a kind of Baroque variation form. Dedicated to composer and pianist Frank Merrick, the piece is based on the insistent repetition and development of its opening chime-like theme. This theme is driven through a number of permutations, primarily cloaked in an ever-changing chromaticism. Like Schubert and Chopin, Bax, an accomplished pianist, excelled at the short, compact character piece, adapting it to a modern idiom. In 1938, Bax arranged Paen for full orchestra.

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