FERRETTI, PAOLO MARIA. - Born at Subiaco on 3 December 1866, died at Bologna on 23 May 1938. A Benedictine monk at Genoa, he was later 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 with the publication of the Principi teorici e pratici di canto gregoriano (the 3rd ed. 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 the 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 made him so appreciated in his lectures on aesthetic theory, paleography, and the history of Gregorian chant, which he gave at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music from 1911, and also after he became its president in 1922. F.'s scholarly work gave a broad foundation to his liturgical-musical apostolate and effectively supported his artistic activity. His concerts and public courses in Gregorian chant remained free from overly subjective interpretations as well as from cold archaeological ones. After long hesitations, which demonstrate his probity, he abandoned his personal theories on Gregorian rhythm and adhered to the Solesmes system (Pothier-Mocqueros). Under his presidency, the Pontifical School of Sacred Music became a pontifical institute, was enriched with a monumental organ, and began the publication of the Monumenta Polyphoniae Italicae. F. was an academician of St. Cecilia and a member of the Association of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon.