Thomas, Pierre

THOMAS, PIERRE. - Benedictine monk, of the abbey of Clervaux, b. at Mouroux (France) on 15 July 1906, d. in Rome on 19 Dec. 1951.

Having obtained his diploma in Rome at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, he was immediately called there to teach Gregorian theory, history and paleography. He wrote numerous articles in the Bollettino Ceciliano, Ephemerides liturgicae, "Ambrosius", "La vie bénédictine" of Ligugé, "Cecilia" of Boston; he directed and left behind various transcriptions of Gregorian and post-Gregorian pieces; he was also an active contributor to the Enciclopedia Cattolica for the entries on Gregorian chant.

For years he was preparing a critical edition of unpublished medieval musical treatises and published at various times studies on modality and rhythm, on the practical interpretation and on the paleographic exegesis of Gregorian chant. He provided the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music with a substantial body of microfilms reproducing hundreds of Gregorian and polyphonic codices, taken from the various libraries of Europe. A place apart is deserved by the monographic study Le chant et les chantres dans les monastères bénédictins antérieurs au XVe siècle, published in the Mélanges 1947, edited by the abbey of St. Jerome.

Luisa Cervelli