FERRETTI, PAOLO MARIA. — Born at Subiaco on 3 December 1866, died at Bologna on 23 May 1938. A Benedictine monk at Genoa, he later became abbot (1900) at Torrechiara and Parma, after having been professor of philosophy and master of novices.
Although lacking technical musical training, for thirty years he illuminated Gregorian studies through the publication of Principi teorici e pratici di canto gregoriano (the 3rd ed. was reprinted several times); Il cursu metrico e il ritmo delle melodie gregoriane (Rome 1913); Etude sur la notation aquitaine d'après le Graduat de si Yrieix B. N. (Paris, cod. 903, in Paléographie musicale de Solesmes, XIII); I manoscritti musicali dell'Archivio di Manterassino (in Casinensia, 1903). His most important work, a classic in the field, is Estetica gregoriana, ossia trattato delle forme musicali del canto gregoriano (Rome 1934), in which F. demonstrates the qualities of clarity, originality, and breadth of documentation that earned him such esteem in his lectures on aesthetic theory, paleography, and the history of Gregorian chant, which he delivered at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music from 1911, and also after becoming its director in 1922. F.’s scholarly work provided a broad foundation for his liturgical-musical apostolate and effectively supported his artistic activity. His concerts and public courses in Gregorian chant remained free both from overly subjective interpretations and from cold archaeologism. After long hesitations, which demonstrate his probity, he abandoned his personal theories on Gregorian rhythm and adhered to the Solesmes system (Pothier-Mocqueros). During his presidency, the Pontifical School of Sacred Music became a pontifical institute, acquired a monumental organ, and began publishing the Monumenta Polyphoniae Italicae. F. was an academician of S. Cecilia and a member of the Association of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon.