TAIZÉ

Copyright information

 

Website

All material published on this website is copyright © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé (A&PT), Communauté de Taizé, 71250 Taizé, France editions taize.fr

Permission for use of the songs of Taizé

For years now, parishes and Churches have been using the “songs of Taizé” and have included some of them in their worship books. The brothers of the Community are happy about this because it creates links between what the young people experience in Taizé and the life of the Churches.

It is important to sing the songs with the same simplicity as in Taizé, so that groups and parishes can discover both the song itself and the prayer it expresses.

There is a profound relation between the musical phrase and these few words that are sung “to infinity”. This long repetition of the same song is linked to a very ancient way of praying, including, for example, the Ave Maria in the West and the Jesus Prayer in the Eastern Churches. This is specifically what the Community wishes to preserve.

Formulated in many different ways, the numerous requests for permission to reproduce the songs have led the brothers to consider in some depth as to how the songs can best retain their true character and their reference to the commitment of the Community, with which they are associated.

The final version of each song is published only at the end of a long period of work by the composers and the authors, relying on the experience of the prayer at Taizé. Through this, each song has its unity and its style. This joint effort is closely linked to the Community’s ministry among the young and the ongoing search for a form of prayer that is accessible to a large number of people in the meetings, both at Taizé and elsewhere.

Some people ask the Community to accept modifications: adaptations, arrangements, new instrumental accompaniments, new words or new translations. However justified these changes may be in the eyes of their authors, if they were accepted, we would soon see the emergence of multiple versions of most of the songs, some of them pretty far from the original. This is exactly what the Community wishes to avoid. It seems essential to let the Taizé songs live “as they are”, in their simplicity and their original authenticity, as bearers of a prayer that is very simple and meditative.

These are the reasons why the Community authorises only the reproduction of the original versions of the songs, as they appear in the books published by Taizé, or by the authorised publishers in each country.

Singing

If you wish simply to sing the songs in public or private worship, no permission is needed.

Making recordings

If you wish to make a recording of the songs or to copy parts of existing recordings made at Taizé, please first contact A&PT.

Copying songs on paper

If you wish to copy or print the songs on paper or reproduce them on the internet, permission is needed. For non-commercial reproductions of the songs on paper – songsheets for the use of particular congregations, parishes, schools, choirs, or reproductions of individual pieces in liturgical song books for local use only – or for overhead projection, please ask for permission beforehand in the various countries as listed below, or otherwise contact A&PT directly.

For all other projects for reproduction or use of the songs – commercial or otherwise – it is important to contact A&PT.

Non-commercial licensing on-line:
OneLicense https://onelicense.net/
or by e-mail:
Australia and New Zealand: infoau onelicense.net
UK and Ireland: infoeurope onelicense.net
United States and Canada: contact G.I.A. Publications, 7404 South Mason Avenue, Chicago, IL 60638 custserv giamusic.com

Texts

The texts displayed on this website may be freely copied and distributed on paper for non-commercial use, but only if the source is quoted, with the following copyright notice:
“copyright © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, 71250 Taizé, France.”

For use in any medium destined for sale or which directly or indirectly supports a commercial venture, or for inclusion in publications, written permission from A&PT is required.

Likewise, for electronic re-transmission, notably via Internet, prior authorisation from A&PT is required.

Images, graphics, video, sound files

To copy or distribute any other elements from this site (including images, video, graphics or sound files) in any form, prior permission from A&PT is required.

The name “Taizé”

The name “Taizé” and the dove-cross symbol are registered as trade marks of Ateliers et Presses de Taizé.