The work was commissioned by the Danish Broadcasting corporation and premiered by the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra conducted by Frans Rasmussen.
The present version was followed in 1982 by the longer Shunting in a Peaceful Morning II, commissioned by the Royal Danish Theatre for a ballet, Gry (Dawn), by Lise la Cour. Here the orchestration is supplemented by a seven-member jazz group.
While the first version was being composed, it brought back childhood memories of the shunting of trains in Frederiksberg on a peaceful morning; hence the title.
Finn Savery