Pothier, Joseph (EN)

Pothier Joseph, *7 December 1835 Bouzemont (Vosges), †8 December 1923 Conques (Aveyron), French scholar and publisher of Gregorian chant, OSB. He was ordained a priest in 1858 before beginning work in the diocese of Saint-Dié. In 1859 he joined the abbey in Solesmes, founded in the then-derelict Benedictine priory by P. Guéranger, who had undertaken the task of renewing French monastic life destroyed by the Revolution. In 1860 Pothier took his monastic vows and joined the work led by Dom P. Jausions on the new edition of liturgical books for the French Benedictine congregation, a project he directed after the death of his confrère in 1871. The outcome of this work was the publication of Les mélodies grégoriennes (1880), in which, drawing on the study of notation, the writings of ancient grammarians, as well as medieval music theorists, he formulated rules for the interpretation of Gregorian chant. According to him, Gregorian chant was originally performed in “free rhythm of speech” based on the “natural instinct of the ear.” Carrying out Guéranger’s call to restore the “authentic” version of Gregorian melodies, in 1883 Pothier published Liber gradualis, the first Solesmes edition of chant “restored according to the testimony of ancient manuscipts”. Concerned with faithfully reproducing medieval notation in his edition, he arranged for the Desclée brothers printing house to introduce new typefaces modelled on the notation of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Parisian manuscripts. Despite the positive reception of Pothier’s work at the Gregorian Congress in Arezzo in 1882 and the support of the renowned liturgist Cardinal J. B. Pitra, the Vatican did not at that time grant it official approval, choosing instead to maintain the exclusive publishing rights granted to F. Pustet of Regensburg, whose editions were based on the so-called Medicean edition of 1614–15. The new approach to publishing and interpreting chant represented in Solesmes by Dom A. Mocquereau did not appeal to Pothier, who did not favour the inclusion of symbols marking rhythmic nuances in chant books, and was also sceptical about Mocquereau’s publishing project that was eventually brought to fruition in “Paléographie musicale”. In 1893 Pothier left Solesmes to become prior of the Abbey of St. Martin in Ligugé, and in 1895 oversaw the restoration of the monastery of St Wandrille in Fontenelle, becoming its abbot. In 1901, following the enactment of anti-clerical laws in France, he found refuge in Belgium together with his entire monastic community. After the expiration of Pustet’s thirty-year monopoly, Pothier was appointed in 1904 by Pope Pius X to head a commission charged with preparing a new edition of liturgical chants. Among its members were P. Wagner, A. Mocquereau, and A. Gastoué. Differences of opinion among the members led Mocquereau and the Solesmes monks to withdraw from the work, and the new Vatican editions—Kyriale (1905), Graduale (1908), and Antiphonale Romanum (1912)—were based largely on Pothier’s earlier editions.

Pothier played a key role in the process of restoring Gregorian chant to liturgical practice in a form closely aligned with medieval sources. His work, together with the periodical “Revue de chant grégorien”, which he co-founded in 1892 and edited, also contributed significantly to stimulating broader scholarly interest in medieval liturgical chant.

Literature: D. Johner Dom J. P. und seine Bedeutung für den gregorianischen Choral, “Benediktinische Monatsschrift” VI, 1924; L. David Dom Joseph Pothier, abbé de Saint-Wandrille, et la restauration grégorienne, Saint-Wandrille 1943; P. Combe Histoire de la restauration du chant grégorien d’après des documents inédits, Solesmes 1969; K. Bergeron Decadent Enchantments: The Revival of Gregorian Chant at Solesmes, Berkeley 1998; J.-P. Noiseux Dom Joseph Pothier et Hildegarde de Bingen, “Études grégoriennes” XLI, 2014; B. Lessmann Le chant grégorien en France (1811–1908): entre liturgie, science, politique et esthétique, in: La Musique religieuse en France au XIXe siècle: Le sentiment religieux entre profane et sacré (1830–1914), ed. N. Dufetel, «Speculum musicae» XLIV, Turnhout 2022.