Voor kleine mensen - Psalm 72 = For Lowly People (Ps 72), 1971 - 1987

Huijbers called this his Indian Psalm, since he was inspired to write it as a result of his workship visit to the Dominican's Pastoral Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1970. The Taos Indian tradition caught his ear, and with it his imagination, of a people decomated by the arrival of the European settlers. He brought a Taos drum back home with him (which, after his death and through a process of detection, I located with a family member, and it is now in the possession of Tom Löwenthal). As with all Native American Indian music, the piece is pentatonic, and Huijbers has woven a syncopated drum beat throughout. A steady pulse is provided by a bass drum, while a patten of chordal cluster in the right hand approximates the tonality of the original source. Native American songs are all percussion driven, with cedar flute accompaniments.--Tony Barr