Het lied van alle zaad = The Song Of All Seed, 1967 - 1997

This song, based on an old and familiar Dutch folksong, is ritual music in all its elementary purity and simplicity. Huijbers would refer to it as the liturgical folksong of the people. It embodies Scripture, singing Covenant into being once again, as expressed in the wisdom teachings of Jesus. While drawing attention to the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, Oosterhuis attributes the text to 1 Corinthians 15:36-37. It is ritual in structure, based on a pattern of proclamation and repetition which integrates the assembly into the occasion being celebrted. It is ritual in its dynamics, as a dialogue between choir sections assembly, in an open-form acclamatory akin to the pre-Ambrosian songs of the Early Church. Huijbers' melodic pattern may be thought of as an extension of the Early Church's musical form of cantillation, where the voice of a songleader is elevated in pitch to make proclamation, eliciting the response of the assembly. We sing not only the 'real presence', of Jesus among us, but of becoming that real presence to one another in the simple act of sharing bread at a common table. -- Tony Barr