Music Notes for Sunday, January 26, 2025

Music for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Messe a trois voix – André Caplet (1878-1925)

Composed in 1919-20, this Sunday’s setting of the Mass ordinary in church, Messe a trois voix by André Caplet was first performed on June 13, 1922 at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, under the direction of the composer. Although the score bears a second nomenclature in parentheses designating tenors, baritones and basses, probably with the aim of broadening its performance possibilities, the original distribution with the three female voices was Caplet’s preference. An accomplished conductor and pianist, André Caplet was a friend of Claude Debussy and completed the orchestration of several of Debussy’s compositions.

Although limited to three voices, Caplet has nonetheless been able to beautifully serve the text of the ordinary, which he treats with rare enthusiasm and ease. Starting from a single B flat, the three voices gradually emerge to give the main motif of the Kyrie which will be, each time, stated in one voice before being punctuated at its end by the other two. Written in D flat, the Gloria is conceived in several sections, each delimited by a “chorus” on the incipit of the text and favoring writing in two parallel voices, plus the third in counterpoint. The unison voices are more frequent in the Sanctus (on “Benedictus” and “Hosanna”), and the Agnus Dei presents the most accomplished example of the rhythmic flexibility sought by Caplet, less by using irrational values than by multiplying the poco ritardando and poco accelerando, sometimes in the space of a single measure.

Gerald Harder