Liszt’s mid-century inspiration, Totentanz (Paraphrase on “Dies Irae” for pianoforte and orchestra), would prove to be one of the most enduring, inspiring, and disturbing works of the 19th century. It was inspired partly by Traini’s fresco, “Triumph of Death,” but also from the entire medieval tradition of Death depicted as a wild sort of Peter Pan, leading the folk to their demise in dances of ecstatic frenzy. It has often been noted how these medieval depictions were psychological aids to those surrounded by inexplicable deaths (that we now know were from plague and pestilence), but they also probably served as strict warnings against excess.