In an interview with Owen Jensen (1965), Lilburn said how struck he was by the painter Toss Woollaston's remark that "international influences are what give our work manner, but environment should give it character." This sonatina combines geometric patterning of classical forms with the distinctive simplicity of colour and line that the composer so admired in the work of the regionalist painters. The first movement hymns a fundamental vitality – a fresh start in the morning land that is New Zealand; an almost geological majesty pervades the second movement and a three-note motive sets the finale in motion. Lilburn composed an earlier second movement (possibly replaced after consultation with pianist Owen Jensen), included as an appendix to this volume: it reveals the influence of Bartok, perhaps directly stimulated by the Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus's Bartok performances during her 1946 concert tour of New Zealand.

Owen Jensen, to whom the work is dedicated, gave a broadcast performance of the sonatina from IYA Auckland on 15 January 1947. Lili Kraus subsequently performed it in recital (with live broadcasts) in Christchurch (repeating it as an encore) and Wellington on 8 and 12 April 1947; in November 1948 Colin Horsley played it in London's Wigmore Hall; Margaret Nielsen first recorded it in 1985.