Rautavaara has gone through a variety of stylistic phases, and is perhaps the most versatile of contemporary Finnish composers. To a considerable degree, his stylistic development is reflected in his piano music. Kolme symmetristä preludia (Three Symmetrical Preludes; 1949) expresses his Constructivist side. The melodic-harmonic expression of this work was something new in Finnish music at the time, for it was consistently built up on vertically mirrored symmetry.