Much confusion exists with regard to whether the Catholic Church officially adopted the “Solesmes Edition” of the chant for the Vatican Edition. To understand the true state of things, one must realize that Dom Joseph Pothier entered the Solesmes congregation in 1859 and published his Liber Gradualis in 1883 along with several other important works on chant. In 1893 Dom Pothier was appointed Prior of Ligugé, a Solesmes daughterhouse. Then, in 1895, he became Abbot of St. Wandrille, another Solesmes daughterhouse. When Dom Pothier left Solesmes, his student Dom Mocquereau took over where he left off, and quickly started experimenting with different methods of publishing chant as well as modifying many of Pothier's ideas. It is enlightening to study these early Mocquereau editions and note the evolution of his notation, sometimes changing from month to month. As stated above, Dom Pothier used his editions as the basis for the Vatican Edition (especially the Graduale and Antiphonale). In this sense, one can say that the Vatican Edition was the “Solesmes chant,” because Pothier published his seminal works while at Solesmes.
-Jeff Ostrowski
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