Opening van de dienst = Opening of the Service, 1978 - 1981

This ritual song of gathering is a processional approach to God's house. Oosterhuis has provided a selection of verses from Psalm 103, which is a midrash - collection of allusions of fragments from the Psalter. He uses traditional language such as the name of the Lord, which has a natural rhythmic flow, suited to both speech and song. The piece is in three sections, each of which is followed by a profound silence for the assembly to reflect on the various stages of gather. A textual commentary is provided on the following page.

Huijbers chose the tonus peregrinus - wandering tone, used in the Liber Usualis for Psalm 114, In exitu Israel de Egypto - When Israel came away from Egypt. Tonus peregrinus is called the wandering tone, the ninth reciting tone in Gregorian chant beyond the regular 8 tones. We are a wandering, journey people, pilgrims sill in exile with no permanent abode. We are each, and collectively, refugees, exiles, who are challenged on earth to seek a better land, a new world of our own making. Although firmly rooted on this earth, the circumstances in which we live are forever shifting, and we are destined for a better form of existence. The only constancy is One whom we call God, for want of a better descriptor since the Deity is beyond all names. Peregrinus expresses the excitement of never arriving, always discovering, ever open to surprises. Following Oosterhuis' direction, Huijbers preserves the literary structure, dividing each verse into 3 sections, the first for cantor, the second for choir/schola, and the third for the assembly. The accent of the text determines the rhythm or meter of the chant formula throughout, which I preserved in translation. -- Tony Barr