Francis Poulenc was a member of the collection of French composers known as ?Les Six,? a group whose music is seen as a rejection of the overly emotional Romantic period. Poulenc?s music is for the most part tonal and diatonic, but maintains the bright colors and strong rhythms of many of his predecessors like Satie and Stravinsky. 

Banalites is a song cycle of 5 pieces written in 1940, at the height of the second World War. The cycle is set to texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, as was his first set of songs ?Le Bestiaire,? also found on Virtually Vocal. A long time fan of the poet, Poulenc had been waiting until the time was right to set Sanglots" and "Fagnes de Wallonie? and after rereading "Hôtel" and "Voyage à Paris" in old literary journals he decided the time was right. 

Despite the fact that the title Banalites is translated to ?platitudes? or ?trifle things? in English, some of the poems are in fact deeply moving and heavy like ?Sanglots,? while others are indeed light-hearted and trivial like ?Voyages a Paris? and ?Hotel.?