Poulenc had not written for choral forces for over a decade when, in 1936, his friend and fellow-composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud was killed in harrowing circumstances. This, fused with the memory of his father’s death, caused a spiritual crisis in Poulenc’s life which led to a series of important compositions for chorus. The powerful Mass In G Major is a missa brevis with a daring use of tonality, though the playfulness of Poulenc’s ‘Les Six’ period is not absent. In Sept Chansons, to surrealist texts, and in the two sets of Motets - both very personal and penitential – Poulenc generates a huge range of emotion.