The wind septet dates from 1948.  It was a time when Hindemtih, who had emigrated to America in 1940 to escape persecution by the Nazi regime, was making his second European tour as a conductor and course lecturer.  He himself described this time period as "hard but happy weeks of travel and concert activity".

During a break from his journey in Sicily he wrote the first four movements of the septet, and composed the finale a week later in Rome.  Around this time Hindemith wrote the following in a letter: “{I am} in one of the most beautiful gardens imaginable; the sea at my feet, and the snow covered Mount Etna in the background.  If you can believe at all that your surroundings can influence the quality of a composition, then you would expect to have the best ideas of all at this place.

The first movement is written in a modified sonata form structure.  The second and fourth movements, which were both written on the same day, present exactly the same musical material in reverse order.  The third movement is a set of variations on a march-like theme.  The last movement was written as a triple fugue, having three themes that are at first developed separately, but then appear simultaneously in a contrapuntal combination.