„An den Wassern zu Babel“

Kurt Thomas’s setting of Psalm 137 „An den Wassern zu Babel” („By the waters of Babylon“) is one of his earlier compositions and the second that he published at Breitkopf & Härtel in 1928, after the Mass in A op. 1. The motet for double choir with a performing time of about six minutes portrays the psalm text vividly. Long flowing lines in the beginning point to the rivers of Babylon, leading on to the lament of the Israelites and finally to a fantasy of revenge before coming back to the flowing lines in the end. Although the motet includes many of the features of his later choral works, it is among the more easily accessible works of Kurt Thomas and can therefore also be performed by good amateur choirs.