"This Requiem is entirely composed on the Gregorian themes of the Mass for the Dead.  Sometimes the musical text was completely respected, the [accompaniment] intervening only to support or comment on it; sometimes I was simply inspired by it or left it completely, for example in certain developments suggested by the Latin text, notably in the Domine Jesu Christe, the Sanctus and the Libera. In general, I have sought above all to enter into the characteristic style of the Gregorian themes. Therefore, I have done my best to reconcile, as far as possible, Gregorian rhythm as it has been established by the Benedictines of Solesmes with the demands of modern meter.  As for the musical form of each of these pieces, it is generally inspired by the same form presented in the liturgy. The organ’s role is merely episodic: it intervenes, not to support the chorus, but solely to underline certain accents or to replace temporarily the sonorities of the orchestra which sound all too human. It represents the idea of peace, faith, and hope."

 Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was a contemporary of Duruflé.  He completed Quatre Motets pour un temps de pénitence  in 1939 dedicated to his compositional mentor Nadia Boulanger.  Poulenc’s trademark choral style is established in sharply defined dynamic contrasts, unsettled meter, and often ingenious chord progressions.  Poulenc was described in a 1950 Paris-Presse article as "half monk, half deliquent" ("le moine et le voyou"), yet the four movements of Quatre Motets are sombre and serious as they progress from the simple unison melody in the first movement to a tearful depiction in the fourth movement of Jesus being taken in the garden of Gethsemane.