Portland - (Oregon) based guitarist/composer of Finnish heritage Bryan Johanson has written prolifically for the guitar, both solo and in chamber ensembles. His works have come into prominence through exposure by David Starobin, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and other notable artists. His Variation on a Finnish folksong was written for his father, it is a set of variations based on an ancient Finnish folk melody. The melody was used when singing the text from the 'Kalevala', a set of loosely related folk-tales of transformation and magic that were often sung to the accompaniment of the kantele, a type of zither, and the ancient Finnish harp.