Taneli Kuusisto (1905-88) was a versatile influence in Finnish musical life: composer, pianist, organist, church musician, writer on music, and Rector of the Sibelius Academy. Of the more than 120 solo songs penned by him, Suomalainen rukous (A Finnish Prayer), a setting of a poem by Uuno Kailas composed in 1939 on the eve of the Winter War, has acquired a status all of its own. It is here availabe as a version for mixed chorus.