After Berio completed his Sequenza I for flute (1958), several years passed before he produced what was to become the second entry in the series, Sequenza II for solo harp (1963). Like the other works in the series, Sequenza II reflects an entirely idiomatic, virtuosic approach in writing for the instrument in question. In this work, still, Berio specifically confronts the harp's "celestial" associations as found in music of the sensual Impressionist styles that were so prevalent early in the twentieth century. Sequenza II employs extremes of dynamics and articulation, as well as calling for special timbral and playing techniques, including harmonics, rapid tremolo on a single pitch, and striking the flat of the hand on the strings and the body of the harp. Berio's pitch language, having evolved through works such as Différences (1959) and Circles (1960), attains a refinement of harmonic purpose in Sequenza II.

Sequenza II virtually served as a sketch for a later work commissioned by Heinrich Strobel. The first of Berio's Chemins (Chemin I for harp and orchestra, 1965) employs Sequenza II as its musical core, around which orchestral textures proliferate "like layers of an onion."

Sequenza II was written for harpist Francis Pierre, who premiered it in Darmstadt in 1963.

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