Rautavaara as an erudite composer has a strong tendency to treat music as a sign of the spiritual world beyond human existence. This approach merges his diverse artistic activities as a composer, writer, poet, amateur painter, and philosopher. Rautavaara seems to attempt the creation of his idiosyncratic version of a “total work of art” by re-using parts of one composition in other works. In this way he offers a rich network of mutual interrelations and this intertextuality. Moreover, Rautavaara's operas have similar plots in which the main theme is that of a conflict between an individual and his or her environment, between past and present, life and death, the real world and dreams, and similar opposites. Such binary oppositions correspond to the mythical elements in music revealed by the structural anthropology of Lévi-Strauss and to Greimas's model of mythical actants. Ancient rituals and pagan mythology play important roles in several of Rautavaara's operas, including The Myth of Sampo, Marjatta, The Lowly Maiden, and Thomas; they can also be found in his choral works, particularly in those for male choir. These works in turn have exerted a strong influence on his instrumental compositions, as can be seen in his frequent auto-citations. Although the operatic passages quoted in instrumental works necessarily come without the text originally associated with the music, the imports do not entirely lose their semantic level or their signification. For Rautavaara as for Mozart, opera is the most important site for experiments: he rarely works in the opposite direction, citing material first composed for an instrumental composition in his operas. Moreover, most of his works have titles or subtitles that point to extramusical references, which he claims were sources of inspiration or starting points for his music. Finally, commentaries and program notes in staggering number offer often very detailed explanations of how certain musical figures relate to painting, literature, and psychology.

The aim of the present study has been to provide a hermeneutic analysis of a certain group within the body of Rautavaara's instrumental works. His music invites such approach since it is full of profound correspondences with extramusical ideas. The composer frequently emphasizes such correspondences with autobiographical details. The method of inquiry employed here could be applied not only to instrumental music concerning angels, but to almost all of his other music, particularly to his instrumental works. Rautavaara uses symbolic representation in all musical parameters.