Despite her young age, Lili Boulanger produced an artistically significant and extensive body of work at the transition from Romanticism to Modernism in France. Due to serious illnesses from childhood onwards, she was aware of her early death and wrote with all her remaining strength to counteract it. The impressive setting of Psalm 130, Du fond de l'abîme (“Out of the depths I cry to you”), the traditional prayer for the dead, completed in 1917, can be understood as her very personal invocation of God and as a struggle to come to terms with her expected death. But her grief in the face of the long-lasting world war also plays an essential role in her plea for peace. And although she was celebrated in musical life during her lifetime, not least after the posthumous premiere of this psalm, the composer soon fell into oblivion. It is only in recent decades that her works have been performed more frequently again, thanks to the efforts of the women's movement. The performance of the psalm still seems important to us for her appreciation.

Composed in 1888 (final version in 1900), Gabriel-Urbain Fauré's Requiem marks a transition in France from Romantic to Modern music, specifically Impressionism. Departing from the expectations of a requiem that were common at the time and still are today, it dispenses with the dramatic tones of the Last Judgment. For the composer, death holds no terror, but promises peace in an afterlife in heavenly paradise. Gentle, rocking melodies and distinctive harmonic turns have influenced later composers and audiences to this day, paving the way for the work's popularity.