Taize - Worship, Prayer and Music

Press button to right to listen to some Taize music performed by our choir with cello, guitars and flute. There are 3 individual songs as well as a complete Taize service. The individual songs are less than 3-4 minutes in length; the complete service is 48 minutes.

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic order in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France.  It is composed of about 100 brothers who come from Protestant and Catholic traditions.  The brothers come from about 30 countries across the world.  The monastic order has a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation.  It was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schutz.  The community has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage.  Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work.  Through the community's ecumenical outlook, they are encouraged to live in the spirit of kindness, simplicity and reconciliation.

The community, though Western European in origin, has sought to include people and traditions worldwide.  They have sought to demonstrate this in the music and prayers where songs are sung in many languages, and have included chants and icons from the Eastern Orthodox tradition.  The music emphasizes simple phrases, usually lines from Psalms or other pieces of Scripture, repeated and sometimes also sung in canon.  Earlier Taizé community music was conceived and composed by Jacques Berthier.  Later Joseph Gelineau became a major contributor to the music.

As you listen to the complete service performed on 3/27/2011, notice the periods of silence, some are as long as 7 minutes.  It is a chance to become closer to God.  There are 3 Biblical passages: one from the Old Testament, one from the Acts of the Apostles, and one from the New Testament.

The music has a more Lenten flavor whereas other services may take a more lively sound with many alleluias.

Footnotes:

In 1991, the asteroid 100033 Taizé was named in honor of the community. -- from Wikipedia

The following pictures are from our January 22, 2012 Taize gathering.