While the music of certain twentieth century composers often reflected personal or political problems—Shostakovich comes prominently to mind here—Hindemith's compositions rarely reflected any of the troubles that often plagued his life. That said, this piece, written in Nazi Germany in 1936, two years before Hindemith fled to Switzerland, is a mostly upbeat work, but its darker undercurrents and bouts of melancholy might well reflect the turmoil in the composer's homeland. "If in the next days you receive flute sonatas instead of book chapters, do have pity on the poor tortured musician, who sometimes has more than he can take of theorizing." So wrote Gertrude Hindemith to her husband's publisher on December 4, 1936—a scheduled day off from Hindemith's heavy work on a theoretical treatise. In the middle of the night, Hindemith suddenly got up and started writing a flute sonata. He finished the first movement while Gertrude was still composing her letter, finished the second on December 7, and finished the last on December 16. The moderately paced opening movement begins with a stately theme on flute that will, in the course of its deft development, spawn delightful variants and motifs. The music throughout the movement is slightly ambivalent, ultimately sounding bright but tinged with a sense of conflict, especially from the piano's often unsettled harmonies. The slow middle movement conveys a lonely sense, the piano again imparting a darker character than the dreamy flute. The lively finale opens with a joyous playful theme on flute over driving piano rhythms. The music intensifies midway through, then comes to a halt, seeming on the verge of collapse. The lively manner from the opening revives, its playfulness and cheer returning, and the work ends happily.

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