Bax eventually completed his Symphony No. 2 in E minor and C major in 1926, after intermittent work for the previous two years. It was dedicated to Sergey Koussevitzky who, after protracted negotiations with Bax, conducted the first two performances in Boston with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on 13 and 14 December 1929. Eugene Gooseens conducted the first London performance with the Queen's Hall Orchestra on 20 May 1930. The symphony is scored for piccolo doubling flute, two other flutes, two oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two tenor trombones, bass trombone and tenor and bass tuba. A varied percussion section includes timpani, bass drum, tambourine, cymbals xylophone, glockenspiel, celesta, piano and two harps. Use is made of the organ and the orchestra is completed by the usual strings.

In a perceptive analysis of the symphony, Lewis Foreman has drawn attention to the four ideas heard in the Molto moderato introductory section to the first movement, motifs that recur, particularly in the first and third movements. The first of these appears, dark-hued, over a bass drum roll, near the beginning of the work. The eighth bar brings a second sombre element, introduced by the cor anglais, clarinet and bassoon. A short but significant motif is heard from the lower strings and tubas, immediately followed by a slightly longer motif from three flutes and muted trumpets. Tension mounts as the music moves forward to the Allegro moderato, with its emphatic opening before the related first subject, announced by the clarinets. The music presses forward as the material is developed. A second subject eventually appears, introduced Poco largamente, followed by flute and solo cello, marked Moderato semplice. The material undergoes further development, with the motifs from the opening emerging from time to time in remarkable orchestral colours, suggesting at times the palette of Richard Strauss in its sonorities. The recapitulation brings back the urgency of the first subject, the slower and more lyrical second subject and interwoven reminiscences of the basic motifs that give the work its unity. Flutes and harp open the second movement, against which the rising third motif of the introduction to the first movement is heard from cellos and double basses. A lyrical melody is announced by the violins and a transition leads to a second theme in the strings. A dynamic climax is followed by a third element, underpinned by an organ pedal C. A solo violin prefigures the return of the first theme and the hushed closing section of the movement, in a positive B major. There is a short introduction to the last movement. Here the threatening third motif is heard, as in the first theme of the subsequent Allegro feroce. There follows a sinister march-like passage, spurred on by a Mahlerian use of the trumpet, and then a more subdued element, lightly scored, with a melody for bassoons and cellos against an insistent violin rhythm. There is a direct quotation of part of the introduction to the first movement, soon to be followed by the final section of the movement, similar in length to the initial introduction and bringing the symphony to a whispered ending, always in the varied instrumental colours that have marked the whole work.