The Pelimannit (Fiddlers, 1952) suite, numbered opus 1, was the first “real” composition by Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016), written even before he was accepted by the Sibelius Academy to study composition. He originally scored it for the piano, but later made an arrangement for string orchestra. Before taking the Academy's entrance exam, he had been reading about the ancient church modes in The History of Music by Heikki Klemetti, and the examples quoted by Klemetti were Ostrobothnian melodie...