Jacques Berthier

Jacques Berthier (27 June 1923 – 27 June 1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at Taizé.

Biography Berthier was born in Auxerre, Burgundy; both of his parents were musicians. His father Paul was the kapellmeister and organist at the Auxerre Cathedral and his mother Geneviève Parquin was a composer. Learning first from his parents, Berthier was trained in music at the École César Franck in Paris. While there, he was taught by, among others, Edouard Souberbielle and Guy de Lioncourt (whose daughter he married). It was accepted by Brother Jean-Marie (Taizé).

His son is Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt.

Music

In more than twenty years, Berthier left an important corpus (232 songs in 20 different languages) in wide use today by other communities and around the world. He is also the author of Masses for organ, a cantata in the form of the cross and a cantata for Saint Cecilia. In total, he wrote over 1,500 pieces of work.

Taizé songs The 2024-2025 edition of the song booklet used by the Taizé Community contains songs written by Jacques Berthier, as well as Joseph Gelineau and the brothers of Taizé.

Berthier's Taizé songs include;