André Caplet

André Caplet was a French composer and conductor, born in Le Havre in 1878. He took violin lessons from an early age and was good enough to be playing in the orchestra of the Grand Théâtre in his home town by the time he was 14. At 18, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he excelled at his studies. He was also conducting by this time. He was one of the conductors of the Boston Opera between 1910 and 1914, introducing much French repertoire to American audiences. He was a great admirer of, and friends with, Claude Debussy and helped with the orchestration of the latter's Le matryre de Saint-Sébastien before going on to conduct its first performance.

He volunteered at the outbreak of the First World War and served at Verdun. He was gassed during this time and this permanently ruined his lungs, causing him to cut back his activities after the war ended: he gave up all his conducting posts, for example, as well as his directorship of the Ecole des Chefs de Musque Américains, so that he could concentrate all his efforts on composing. Nevertheless, his musical output is not extensive: as an opera conductor, he was well-versed in what the human voice could do, and accordingly he wrote many songs and choral works. His Messe à trois voix for a capella female chorus had its premiere in Sainte Chapelle on 13 June 1922. It lacks the traditional “Credo” and includes the familiar Communion motet “O salutaris hostia”. His oratorio-like Le Miroir de Jésus composed in September 1923 features a “choeur de femmes” in an supporting role. In Miroir Caplet set texts by Henri Ghéon as meditations on the fifteen decades of the rosary. Nevertheless, it remains the case that it's his orchestration of Debussy's Children's Corner Suite that is probably the one piece of his work that gets played more than anything else these days.

Caplet caught a cold in 1925 and died shortly thereafter of pleurisy, his lungs having finally given up on him.

---