The Litanies à la Vierge noire signaled a new phase in Poulenc's career, one marked by religious choral works of a mysterious, ethereal, and often extremely moving nature. Not surprisingly, this trend directly stemmed from events in the composer's life. Raised Catholic, Poulenc did not practice the faith seriously until his close friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud was killed in an auto accident in 1936. Deeply anguished by this, Poulenc proceeded to embark on a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Rocamadour, a church in the mountains of southwestern France. The church—which holds a statue of the Virgin carved in black stone—has been a pilgrimage site for some nine centuries, and while there, Poulenc experienced a reconversion to Catholicism. The Litanies were the product of that experience.

"The text is a plea to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity for mercy and understanding," he wrote; he adapted the text from the recitations of one of his fellow pilgrims. Scored for three-part female chorus, the work features a modal, chant-like style that avoids conventional cadences. Particularly notable is the organ part—the liturgical instrument par excellence—which punctuates the choral discourse with numerous dramatic dissonances. Poulenc's interest in the instrument here paved the way for his Organ Concerto of 1937.

The sweet, poignant tone of Litanies à la Vierge noire stands in contrast to Poulenc's more famously irreverent, silly side. He once said his mother was something of a bon vivant while his father was very serious and reserved; the alternation between these characteristics would mark his own music from this point forward.

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