Francis Poulenc had little interest in religion until a terrible automobile accident took the life his friend, the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud. The sudden loss of his friend caused Poulenc to "ponder...on the fragility of the human frame" and seek a deeper spiritual life. The musical result of this religious awakening was a drastic shift towards sacred subjects.

Salve Regina is one of two motets Poulenc composed in 1941and dedicated to his close friends, Georges and Hélène Salle. The text of the other motet, Exultate Deo, invokes the trumpet, tabret, harp, and lute to praise "God, our strength" with a "joyful noise"; the musical setting is likewise exclamatory and triumphant, alternating between strict imitation and assertive homophony. Salve Regina serves as a contrast to the vibrancy of its counterpart, with a text and tone that conveys reverence, penitence, hope, and a much quieter kind of jubilation.

The work begins in homophony, a texture that will predominate throughout the work. The harmonies are both rich and stark, creating a carefully shaped melodic contour that alternately rises, arcs, or descends across each phrase of the text. These smoothed shapes are first broken up by a dramatic leap upwards in the sopranos on the phrase "ad te clamamus" ("our cries to thee we raise"), a gesture and text that is repeated for emphasis. At the phrase "ad te suspiramus" ("to thee we raise our sighs") the texture and harmony suddenly grow darker. A subtle but effective nuance is created by the men's voices as they emerge with pictorial design from the lower range alone, to be joined by the upper voices in the middle of the phrase.

The chordal texture is further broken up for expressive effect at "eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos" ("Therefore, our advocate, [turn] your merciful eyes"). The men begin with a rising melody presented in lush parallel tenths, before being joined by the women on a plaintively leaping line. At the words "Et Iesum" ("And Jesus") the ensemble converges on unison and octaves, with a pensive, angular melody, before returning to solemn homophony. Here the harmony becomes transitory, sequencing its way into new places; the expressive effect is one of fallibility, insecurity, and entreaty. The harmonies become most colorful near the end, on the words "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria" ("O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary"), as bass ostinati gradually lose their footing and chromatic twists alter the harmonic trajectory. The final dissonance resolves into submissive parallel fifths, bringing the work to a solemn close.

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