"The Little Church Around the Corner"
One East 29th Street, New York
MUSIC NOTES: TAIZÉ CHANT
The Third Sunday After the Epiphany - January 27, 2002
For about a year, Taizé (pronounced tezzay) chant has been used at our Solemn Liturgy at the Intercessions which follow the Creed. This style of singing, while known in the East since ancient times, is relatively new in the context of the formal public prayers of the Western church.
Taizé is a village in the Burgundy district of France, and has become synonymous with the unusual monastic community that has evolved there. Remarkably, Taizé is close to the village of Cluny, which in mediaeval times was the site of one of Christendom's most celebrated and significant abbeys. Much of what we now know as Gregorian chant was written in French abbeys during the Middle Ages, and the 20th-century revival of Gregorian chant is largely due to the work of the monks of the French abbey of Solesmes (pronounced solemn, with the accent on the second syllable). Once again, a French monastic community is shining a guiding light upon chant as a medium for prayer.
The Taizé community was founded in 1940, during the despair and destruction of World War II. A 25-year-old man who assumed the name of Brother Roger envisioned a monastic community founded upon ideals of peace, reconciliation and understanding - principles often longed for but seldom achieved. He began to build this community in the village of Taizé, ravaged by the war and all but abandoned. By 1950, the community had grown to eight professed monks. Today, there are about 90 members of the community, from both the Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity, and from over 20 different countries.
Not affiliated with any one denomination, the monks of Taizé follow the traditional monastic way of life, well-summarized by St. Benedict in his phrase ora et labora - prayer and work. They also continue the monastic custom of offering hospitality and a place of retreat for the world-weary. Thousands from around the world have visited Taizé and have come away inspired to share and live its message and introduce to their own communities its methods of prayer and observance.
As with its Benedictine and Cluniac forebears, the Taizé community has given birth to a style of chant which can offer new meaning and new depth to the act of prayer. It is characterized by extreme simplicity, both of melody and of text. In this Taizé chant differs significantly from Gregorian chant, in which highly nuanced and complex melodies carry texts that are equally nuanced and complex. Another characteristic of Taizé chant is repetition. The few words of the text bind closely with the few notes of the melody to form a kind of mantra that enfolds and sweeps heavenward the personal prayers and common intercessions of everyone assembled.
Taizé is a village in the Burgundy district of France, and has become synonymous with the unusual monastic community that has evolved there. Remarkably, Taizé is close to the village of Cluny, which in mediaeval times was the site of one of Christendom's most celebrated and significant abbeys. Much of what we now know as Gregorian chant was written in French abbeys during the Middle Ages, and the 20th-century revival of Gregorian chant is largely due to the work of the monks of the French abbey of Solesmes (pronounced solemn, with the accent on the second syllable). Once again, a French monastic community is shining a guiding light upon chant as a medium for prayer.
The Taizé community was founded in 1940, during the despair and destruction of World War II. A 25-year-old man who assumed the name of Brother Roger envisioned a monastic community founded upon ideals of peace, reconciliation and understanding - principles often longed for but seldom achieved. He began to build this community in the village of Taizé, ravaged by the war and all but abandoned. By 1950, the community had grown to eight professed monks. Today, there are about 90 members of the community, from both the Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity, and from over 20 different countries.
Not affiliated with any one denomination, the monks of Taizé follow the traditional monastic way of life, well-summarized by St. Benedict in his phrase ora et labora - prayer and work. They also continue the monastic custom of offering hospitality and a place of retreat for the world-weary. Thousands from around the world have visited Taizé and have come away inspired to share and live its message and introduce to their own communities its methods of prayer and observance.
As with its Benedictine and Cluniac forebears, the Taizé community has given birth to a style of chant which can offer new meaning and new depth to the act of prayer. It is characterized by extreme simplicity, both of melody and of text. In this Taizé chant differs significantly from Gregorian chant, in which highly nuanced and complex melodies carry texts that are equally nuanced and complex. Another characteristic of Taizé chant is repetition. The few words of the text bind closely with the few notes of the melody to form a kind of mantra that enfolds and sweeps heavenward the personal prayers and common intercessions of everyone assembled.
