“Music is the language of the soul”, said Giovanni Palestrina in the sixteenth century. Today, there are many kinds of music which serve as not much more than wallpaper, but there can also be encounters with it that leave such a profound effect, they stay lodged in the memory forever. There have been several occasions in my life when that has happened, notably in my earliest recollection from childhood. Shortly after the end of the war I saw a funeral procession from the balcony of our family’s bombdamaged dwelling in Halle (Saale). The body of a Russian general in an open coffin was being borne through the streets of the city to the cemetery, to the sounds of a large military band. The experience was incredibly moving and deeply spiritual.