POTHIER, JOSEPH

Dom Guéranger entrusted him with the teaching of theology and then assigned him as an assistant to Dom Jeussions for the compilation, for use by the community, of a choral text more in keeping with ancient tradition, and to establish the rules for a proper performance of Gregorian chant, which was then in a state of serious decline. Released from teaching duties in 1860, Fr. Pothier was able to devote himself entirely to this double task, fraught with difficulty. The collaboration of the two monks led to very important results for the Gregorian reform that was subsequently implemented: the work *Les mélodies grégoriennes d'après la tradition*, published later in 1880, and which among other things provides an explanation of ancient neumes and establishes the place of the Latin accent in the melodic phrase, met with great success and earned him widespread praise at the Congress of Arezzo (1882). The two monks had also prepared an edition of the *Graduale Romanum*, completed in 1868, which later became the basis for the *Liber Gradualis* published by Fr. Pothier in 1883. Among the numerous publications of Fr. Pothier, in addition to those mentioned, are the *Liber Antiphonarius* (1891), the *Processionale monasticum* (1888), and the *Variae Preces* (1888). In 1892 Fr. Pothier left Solesmes to dedicate himself to the restoration of the ancient abbey of St-Wandrille (Seine-Inférieure), of which he was elected abbot in 1898. In 1904 Bl. Pius X entrusted the monks of Solesmes with the mandate to establish the official text of liturgical chant, which he had decided to restore to its primitive purity, and Fr. Pothier was appointed president of the commission charged with approving the texts. Drawing on all the work done at Solesmes, he took sole responsibility for the published texts: the *Graduale* (1907) and the *Antiphonarium* (1912), which earned him briefs of praise from the Supreme Pontiff. Fr. Pothier published many articles in the *Revue de chant grégorien* and in other journals.