In college I had a music appreciation class from a professor who was also an old family friend. There aren't many lectures I remember from those days, but the one that sent shivers up my spine was the time he talked about La Valse by Ravel, and talked about how he visualized it as the ghosts of soldiers standing around the walls of a ballroom, watching society pick up the pieces and return to a life after war. I don't know if Ravel or anyone else saw it exactly that way, but I always remember that description when I listen to it.

SRS