Michael Harvey, the dedicatee, is the pianist who brought Vine's First Sonata to international prominence. It was he who, after the premiere of Vine's Piano Concerto in 1997, commissioned the second sonata with a view to its premiere at the Sydney Festival the following year.

This sonata, like the First, is in two movements. The first movement is further divided into two parts. In the first part, the left hand moves actively, producing various physical effects, while in the subsequent part, the right hand plays a bell-like melody, with the left hand continuously sustaining low notes. In the second movement, syncopation is extensively employed, underpinned by a jazz-influenced rhythmic idiom.