John La Montaine was already an accomplished concert Pianist when he came to public notice as a composer in the late 1950's. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1959 for his First Piano Concerto and was commissioned to write the music for John F Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration in 1961. His sonata in four movements for unaccompanied Flute is dedicated to Paul Renzi who was principal Flute of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1957 when it was published. In his obituary of La Montaine in the New York Times Paul Vitello writes 'Mr LaMontaine's music was lyrical and for the most part traditional with a neo-Romantic streak reflected in hisembrace of poetry American themes and the natural landscape.'