Gabriel Fauré - Berceuse, for violin & piano in D major

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A well educated person was expected to master a wide range of subjects, back in the days when the Academy still had standards.  Indeed, the very term "Liberal Arts" gets its name the same Latin root as "liberty" and described the collection of subjects that Free Men were expected to know.

In our corner of the Internet, you find people such as that.  A friend plays this very piece.  I never did, but performed Fauré's Requiem.  We have these skills because, along with our technical training we learned the Liberal subjects that free men and women should know: history, mathematics, music, logic.

Gabriel Fauré was perhaps France's greatest modern composer.  His life began while Chopin was still composing, and ended in Louis Armstrong's Jazz Age.  He was a child prodigy, taught by no less than Camille Saint-Saens, and ended up as director of the Paris Conservatory.  He was profoundly lyrical, which no doubt contributed no small part in his popularity.  I find his music to be a delight.