The Second Symphony had its origins in a 1962 agreement between John Barnes Chance and composer Clifton Williams, who agreed that each would write a work using the four-note motif C#-D-F-E. When Chance sent a tape of part of his work to Williams, the latter gave up, and Chance turned to other endeavours. At the time he was composer-in-residence with the Ford Foundation's Young Composers Project, living in Greensboro, North Carolina. He subsequently moved to a position as associate professor of composition and theory at the University of Kentucky/Lexington. In 1972, the Northwest Music Center in North Dakota commissioned him to write a work dedicated to the Minot State College Wind Ensemble. He resurrected the earlier work and added to it, creating this symphony. This piece was released in