Unlike divisions of the octave into 19, 31 or 53 steps, which can be considered as being derived from ancient Greek intervals (the greater and lesser diesis and the syntonic comma), division into 34 steps did not arise 'naturally' out of older music theory, although Cyriakus Schneegass proposed a meantone system with 34 divisions based in effect on half a chromatic semitone (the difference between a major third and a minor third, 25/24 or 70.67 cents).
"Ballo in Fa Diesis Minore" is based on Ingmar Bergman The Seventh Seal in which a man defies the personification of Death (lyrics are taken from an inscription of a Danse Macabre depiction at Clusone, near Bergamo); the melody is inspired by "Schiarazula Marazula", a medieval northern Italian theme which accompanied exorcism rites and which was collected by Giorgio Mainerio in his Primo libro de' balli (1578).