SUÑOL, RAMON GREGORIO MARIA. – Benedictine abbot and Gregorianist, born in Barcelona on 7 September 1879, died in Rome on 26 October 1946.
The motu proprio of Blessed Pius X (22 November 1903) directed his activity toward Gregorian chant, under the guidance of dom Mauro Sablayrolles. In 1915 he was appointed prior of Montserrat, and by then he had already published numerous articles on Gregorian chant and the liturgy in Rivista Montserratina, Vida cristiana, and other Spanish journals. For the organization of the Gregorian movement he visited many Spanish seminaries and convents, and in 1905 published a Metodo di canto gregoriano, which went through many editions and translations into foreign languages. MOQUEREAU, ANDRÉ (v.), he wrote in Catalan the Introduzione alla paleografia musicale gregoriana (1925), in which he expounded the principles necessary for the study of manuscripts. This work was greatly expanded and updated in the French translation of 1935.
In 1931 he was summoned by Cardinal Schuster to direct the newly established Scuola superiore di musica sacra in Milan, and during the seven years he remained there he worked tirelessly for the restoration and dissemination of Ambrosian chant, researching its manuscripts, photographing them, and providing them with extensive critical studies. In 1934 he published the Exultet ambrosiano, in 1935 the Messa dei defunti and the Antiphonale missarum, and in 1939 the Vesperale. In 1938, upon the death of Abbot Ferretti (v.), he was called to direct the Pontificio Istituto di musica sacra in Rome, and devoted himself to a more scientific and modern organization of the Institute and its library, also writing numerous articles on the history of Gregorian chant. He contributed to the first 4 volumes of this Enc. Catt. On 14 September 1942 he had been appointed titular abbot of S. Cecilia di Montserrat.