According to Rautavaara's writings, the preludes, later rearranged as symphonic movements, are "bare, sketchy, aphoristic, unconventional, ascetic, and dissonant but still supported with tonality.
[2] After receiving mixed reviews for that performance and concerned about being perceived as conservative, Rautavaara decided to showcase his skills as a contemporary composer writing a symphony full of chromaticism, in expressionistic contrast to the first.
[2] This was one of the precursors of his forthcoming avant-garde period, after he had undergone a stylistic crisis following his years of study in New York.
It has an approximate duration of 22 minutes and is scored for a relatively small orchestra, which is what has led Rautavaara to consider it a chamber symphony, even though the 1984 revision calls for larger forces.
The movement list is as follows: The 1984 revision, which is most commonly performed today, calls for two flutes (second flute doubling piccolo), two oboes (second oboe doubling English horn), three clarinets (in E-flat, A, and B-flat — third clarinet doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons (second basson doubling contrabassoon), two French horns in F, one trumpet in C, a standard string section, and a somewhat large percussion section for three percussionists, which consists of a marimba, a vibraphone, a xylophone, a glockenspiel, a military drum, a whip, a bass drum, clash cymbals, a tam-tam, tom-toms, a guiro, and three side drums.
The symphony starts out with a slow, funereal movement that's opened by a theme played by the lower strings, which is then followed by the woodwinds and, later, the horns.
He also believes the symphony has "määrätty väkivaltaisuus" (a certain aggressiveness), and associates its violence to the intimateness that is implied in the title.
[5] According to the composer, the symphony is "intimate" insofar as it is scored for a relatively small orchestra, but also because it is very expressive in nature, always avoiding the characteristics of expressionist music from the 20s.