Een nieuwe bruiloftslied = A New Wedding Song, 1970 - 1987

In his ceaseless quest for what he described as the liturgical folksong of the people, Huijbers broke through all of the barriers which separated the many genres of music from each other. His first source was Gregorian Chant. He had grown up with this, from his childhood in parish worship, through his highschool years at the Ignatius Collegium, and during his years as a Jesuit. The Gregorian repertoire had been the birthright of every worshiping Catholic prior to Vatican II. Also familiar to all were the classical hymn chants of the Protestant tradition, both from the earliest days of Martin Luther's reforming efforts to the subsequent metrical psalmody of John Calvin. Then there was the vast collection of songs which had found their way into the folklore of The Netherlands, from early medieval piety to victorious battle hymns over the Spaniard occupiers to the songs of an agricultural and seafaring nation. And most recently at the time of his writing, there was Beatle mania invading the airwaves and the dance floors. He took note and advantage of all of this. His quarry therefore for indigenous music was vast, and he flung wide the doors of church music to restore the liturgical song to the people, no longer couched in the hallowed chants of sacred music but in an entirely new language which had long belonged to the people at large. The most common areas for the ritual composer to address might have been the regular weekly Sunday Liturgy. But what of those occasions when people from beyond the regular parameter of worship would gather, notably for weddings? Here the churched and unchurched alike would rub shoulders, and there was a need for music accessible to such eclectic gatherings. Over the years, Oosterhuis had provided many texts with weddings in mind, notably Now In Half Spoken Words [JM 68], Living Everywhere [JM 353], and We Live Not For Ourselves [JM 316]. But something more specific was needed, and Huijbers found his inspiration for this in a traditional Polish folk dance, the ideal vehicle for his New Wedding Song.