El remanso del pitido has been commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for the London Sinfonietta Chorus who give the first performance this evening.It is a work of nostalgia a lament for the decline of steam engines - the stillness of the whistle. Based mainly on a poem by the Spanish writer Gregorio Corral.The setting is for twelve voices eight of them singing through close microphones. The work is fourth in a series of pieces derived from 13th Century homophonic Spanish cantigas and canciones. The final series of works will form a sort of song-book the composer's own accounts of early Spanish music. The idea of a song-book is contained in the title of the firstwork of the series Cancionero para una mariposa.