POTHIER, JOSEPH. — Benedictine of the Congregation of Solesmes, born at Bouzemont (Vosges) on 7 December 1835, died at St-Wandrille on 8 December 1923.
Dom Guéranger entrusted him with the teaching of theology and then assigned him as an assistant to dom. Jeaussions for the compilation, for the use of the community, of a choral chant book more faithful to the ancient tradition, and for establishing the rules of a good performance of Gregorian chant, which was then in a state of profound decline. Relieved of his teaching duties in 1860, P. was able to devote himself entirely to this twofold undertaking, full of difficulties. The collaboration of the two monks produced very important results for the Gregorian reform subsequently carried out: the work Les mélodies grégoriennes d'après la tradition, published later, in 1880, which, among other things, explains the ancient neumes and establishes the place of the Latin accent in the melodic phrase, was highly successful and earned him extensive praise at the Congress of Arezzo (1882). The two monks had also prepared an edition of the Graduale Romanum, completed in 1868, which subsequently formed the basis of the Liber Gradualis printed by P. in 1883. Among P.’s numerous publications, in addition to those mentioned, are the Liber Antiphonarius (1891), the Processionale monasticum (1888), and the Variae Preces (1888). In 1892 P. left Solesmes to devote himself to the restoration of the ancient abbey of St-Wandrille (Seine infér.), of which he was elected abbot in 1898. In 1904 Blessed Pius X entrusted the monks of Solesmes with the task of establishing the official text of the liturgical chant, which he had decided to restore to its primitive purity, and P. was appointed president of the Commission charged with approving the texts. Making use of all the work completed at Solesmes, he assumed responsibility only for the published texts: Graduale (1907) and Antiphonarium (1912), which earned him briefs of praise from the Supreme Pontiff. P. published many articles in the Revue de chant grégorien and in other journals.