Rautavaara's opus 1 is his popular piano suite Pelimannit (The Fiddlers; 1952), the parts of which are, in the composer's words, "free fantasies on the folk tunes in the 'Nuotti-Kiria' (Music Book) of the South Ostrobothnian country fiddler Samuel Rinda-Nickola, who lived at the end of the 18th century". As an astringent reinterpretation of folk music, the work brings Bela Bartok to mind, but the very nature of the Ostrobothnian folk melodies gives the work an individual feel.