Completed in London on 7 March 1939 in London, this sonata is a work of pure Romantic sensibility. The first movement, with its conflicting upheavals, suggests a parallel in private life. The second movement, a set of variations, seems in so many ways to anticipate Chaconne. Lilburn entitles this his second sonata but it predates the A minor sonata completed in November 1939. Perhaps Lilburn is indicating that it followed the juvenile C minor sonata (c.1932) or the lost/unfinished G minor sonata (1937), of which only the slow movement survives. Lilburn's attempt to premiere the work in a student recital at the Royal College of Music (29 June 1939) was aborted by a fit of nerves that forced him to stop playing. Pianist Colin Horsley told Lilburn afterwards that he particularly liked what he had heard of the second movement.