De grote litanie = The great litany, 1971 - 1973

Oosterhuis describes this piece as a reflection on Exodus 33:18. Moses had come down from the mountain to discover the Israelites dancing around a golden calf which they had made, resorting to their pagan ways out of frustration at wandering aimlessly across the wilderness and being deserted by Moses, long-disappeared up the Sinai mountain. Angry with their inability to grasp the one true God, he broke the tablets of the Law, and with the Levites taught them a lesson of the unwritten desert law by slaughtering the unbelievers. He returned to the God of the Mountain to renew the covenant. "Show me your glory", he asked.. "I shall make all my goodness pave the way ahead of you",was the reply, "and before you I shall be YHWH". That promise had been made to Moses at the Burning Bush, I-Who-Am-There-for-You.

The piece consists of three melodic phrases, sung six at a time, throughout the entire 12 note scale without ever compromising its diatonic nature. In all, there are 80 verses, each unit of six modulating in ascending fourths or descending fifths, contributing to the climatic unfolding of the text. The final section of 8 verses combines all 3 melodies in harmony throughout the assembly.. The piece begins in C major and also ends in C major, the first unit now being sung an octave higher. The first melos is a quotation from the Gregorian Regina Caeli. Huijbers had a special devotion to Mary, his middle name being Maria' the second from the Maundy Thursday communion antiphon, Postquam cenavit cum discipulis suis, and the third from Tu es Petrus. Huijbers never strayed from his Gregorian roots.