A rare look inside the Atelier de Paléographie Musicale where famous Solesmes editions such as the Graduale Romanum, Antiphonale Romanum and Liber Hymnarius were produced.
The walls are lined with hundreds of files containing photographic copies of countless manuscripts from all over Europe, essential source material for the publication of the editions of Gregorian Chant which the monks painstakingly prepare here:
Dom Mocquereau’s personal Graduale is also stored in here:
This is in fact one of two volumes, as he had it bound with several blank pages in between each page of music so that he could make his own notes. At the top of the left hand page, in his own hand, it says ‘Ad usum André Mocquereau’:
As well as writing his own notes, Dom Mocquereau also annotated the Chants with the semiological signs of the St Gall notation in red ink:
(For a brief introduction to Dom Mocquereau, one of the most important figures in the revival of the Gregorian Tradition, see P.3 in this paper The Solesmes Chant Tradition: The original neumatic signs and practical performance today from the CMAA Colloquium 2012.)