An den Wassern zu Babel, scored for four solo voices and organ, is a setting of the famous Waters of Babylon passage from Psalm 137. The weeping and wailing by the waters have evoked response in many twentieth century composers, who are not surprisingly aware that modern man has plenty to wail about. The core of the music is the simplest pentatonic or heptatonic monody that proliferates into two, three and four voices.

An den Wassern zu Babel saßen wir und weinten