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. 

?Le Bestiaire? is the first instance of many in which Poulenc employs the poetry of Guillaume Apollinaire. All the short songs in this light-hearted cycle are about animals, hence the title which translates to ?bestiary? in English, meaning a collection of moralized fables relating to animals. Poulenc does an excellent job of word painting in this cycle, from evoking the murky depths of the ocean in ?L'Écrevisse" (The Crayfish) through unmoving bass drones and modal shifts to characterizing the ungainly camels in ?Le Dromadaire? (The Camel) through the falling bass lines and a march-like melody.