This work was completed in July 1912 but remained unplayed until 17th September 1986, when Martin Roscoe recorded it in Manchester for a Radio 3 broadcast on 14th February 1987. In February 1915 Bax finished making an orchestral version, which also remained unperformed during his lifetime and was given its première by the Strolling Players Orchestra conducted by Terence Lovett at the Royal Academy of Music on 31st May 1961. The title derives from Greek νυμφόληπτος (numpholēptos), one who suffers from nympholepsy, a state of rapture inspired by nymphs, and on the manuscript Bax has written:The tale telleth how one walking at summer-dawn in haunted woods was beguiled by the nymphs, and, meshed in their shining and perilous dances was rapt away for ever into the sunlight life of the wild-wood [sic].
