Etwas zurückhaltend was written in 1982 when the composer was a student at the University of Durham. The piece was forgotten until 2009, when MacMillan realised that much within its ideas seemed current and relevant to his recent work. The title comes from Wagner’s indication for the final pages of Götterdämmerung, and the work reflects an ongoing interest in this composer which has been reflected at various points since in MacMillan's work. Allusions to motifs from The Ring are never far away. The work ends with a tentative and tense coda, with nods still being made in the direction of The Ring’s final Immolation Scene.