The death of a dear friend in the late 1930s added a strong spiritual dimension to the music of Francis Poulenc. Alongside his often breezy and carefree secular music, he now began to write one of the 20th Century's greatest legacy of spiritual music, all of it ultimately reflecting a sincere and radiant faith. Igor Stravinsky wrote to Poulenc, "You are truly good, and that is what I find again and again in your music."

This was both Poulenc's last choral work and his last religious work. It is suitable as a liturgical work, even though it was written for a non-religious celebration, the opening of New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He slightly re-ordered the traditional texts of Holy Week to retell the story of the Passion, interspersed with the more reflective texts. It ends with the burial of Christ and a statement of hope.

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