While Louis Vierne is best known for his organ works, his mélodies form a unique part of his oeuvre, reflecting not only his own tragic life but his reaction to the world around him in all its beauty and pain. His vocal compositions can be both lyrical and anguished, deliberately contrasting moments of startling simplicity and elemental fury. Based on the four seasons of the Napoleonic calendar—Floréal, Thermidor, Brumaire and Nivôse, Le poème de l’amour depicts human futility against the relentless force of nature, yet does so with music of great beauty. In Psyché and Ballade du désespéré the artist searches for the meaning of life; in the former l’amour (love), in the latter la mort (death).