The first movement as structured in a "foreshortened sonata form". Foulds wrote in his program notes that some motifs contain "traces of two old English Puritan tunes which had been in the composer's mind since early boyhood". One of them is the first theme of the first movement, a simple and memorable tune, in "harmonic sophistication". The second theme is another singable "Puritan tune". The development section has been described as turbulent. The recapitulation begins, without the first theme, with the second theme now in G major, leading to a dramatic climax. In a coda, the first theme appears again, first in the bass, then rising to a to a "slashing" ending.
