For a soldier in the Irish Civil War it's kill or be killed.

Music: Massive Attack, 'Angel'; Psilonaut, 'Third from the Sun' (from the π soundtrack)  

Birth was the death of it.

Music: Mark Anthony Turnage, 'GG part II', performed by The G Project; Henry Cowell, 'Ostinato Pianissimo', performed by the George Barton Ensemble

A man has murder in mind.

Music: Tansy Davies, 'Neon' (performed by Azalea Ensemble)

A goose leads a charmed existence, for a while.

Music: Maurice Ravel, Mother Goose Suite (performed by Ensemble Q); Gabriel Prokofiev, String Quartet No. 2 (IV) (performed by The Elysian Quartet)

A young pianist provokes rapture and mystery.

Music: Johannes Brahms, Intermezzo in A major, op. 118 no. 2 (performed by Stephen Kovacevich); Frédéric Chopin, Mazurka op. 17 no. 4, performed by Christina Kwok; Gabriel Fauré, 'In Paradisum' (arranged for piano; performed by Emile Naoumoff)

A canon has a trying time in a confessional.

Music: César Franck, Andantino in G Moll; J.S. Bach, Trio Sonatas & Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; Ennio Morricone, 'Music Clock', from For a Few Dollars More; Cirque Plume, 'Quand Nestor Danse' from L'harmonie est-elle municipale?

'A few minutes before death...the Devil always appeared to the dying'.

Music: Modest Mussorgsky, 'The Old Castle' from Pictures at an Exhibition (performed by James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll); Astor Piazolla, Flora's Game (performed by Grenade Rotari); Alberto Posadas, Snefru (Rotari); Mick O'Shea/AC, playing 'the maids'

'I jumped out of bed to feel my stocking, well knowing that the worst had happened'.

Music: Trio Mio, 'Pigeon Scottish' from Stories Around a Holy Goat (2007); Barry Phillips, 'Nos Galan (Deck the Hall)' from Colonial Christmas (2008); Adrian Patrick Gebruers, 'Celtic Suite 2' from The Bells of Cobh (2007); The Jackson 5, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' from Jackson 5 Christmas Album (1970)

'The old sickness has me in its grip again: amnesia in litteris, the total loss of literary memory'.

Music: Erik Satie, Gnossiennes 1-6, performed by Reinbert de Leeuw

'I'm Death, and I make everyone equal'.

Music: Peter Gabriel, 'San Jacinto (Instrumental)' & 'Diggin in the Dirt (Instrumental)' from New Blood (2011)