Netherlands Books

Rien Poorvliet was a Dutch artist and writer of incomparable talent. He was rightly considered a national treasure in the Netherlands, and his death was a national tragedy. Most of his books are free-ranging collections of his superior drawings and paintings interspersed with cursive text narrative about the subject at hand. This book happens to be an account of his life, family, pets, love of animals, culture and country as he experienced it - past, and (at the time) present in the Netherlands. His artwork is extremely expressive and entertaining - he was a master draftsman, and the work ranges from very spontaneous pencil, charcoal, and conte drawings, along with watercolor, and well-finished oil paintings which provide a wonderful visual story of the man's life. The textual narrative is extremely interesting and engaging - you truly feel like you're in the Netherlands, and you're experiencing what he's illustrating and describing. These are more illustrated "picture" books than textual books, but the finely-woven combination of words and pictures completely immerses the reader in Poortvliet's life. He had a wonderful outlook on life, and a fine sense of humor, despite having lived through some very hard experiences. Whether writing and illustrating historical types of subjects (such as this book), or dogs, or horses , or gnomes, or Noah's ark, Poorvliet never failed to completely enthrall the reader. These are books that make you smile from the moment you open the cover, and you hope will never end.

This is an excellent book from page 1. If you love typography, you'll love dutch typography. With visual examples all over it, the book is full of historical references. One of my favorite books on typography, it was worth the high price.

This little book shows all the workings of a windmill even a Dutchman did'nt know. If you need detailed workings of windmills past, and present, this is the only book you need. This is also a great book for artist's if you need detail. Hale Goed!!!

Unlike just a few years ago, today there are many books about Netherlandish and Flemish art of all periods. "From Rogier van Der Weyden to Gerard David" is a beautiful book filled with excellent color and b/w illustrations of the works being discussed. The authors are experts who give adequate details about the artist and his immediate circle, as well as the wider European influence on him and even the artist's effect upon the art world at that time and afterward. While the style is sedate and professional, it's never stodgy or overly academic, the authors being quite good at balancing the two. There are few gaps or unincluded details or individuals, so I can heartily recommend this for anyone who already loves Flemish art or those who want to learn more and to see clear, sharp reproductions of these incredible artists' work.

This is a wonderful compendium of Dutch musical compositional creativity. Well written by a cadre of Dutch composers and musicians, scholars in their own right who know this music first hand and situate this creativity within a context.
I was primarily interested in the post war generation, creators, like Louis Andreissen, Peter Schat, Robert Heppener, Theo Loevendie and Willem Breuker, Maarten Altena,Klaas de Vries, Ton de Leeuw composers you may already know, perhaps not, and whom I've heard of in passing but never was able to get a strong historical fix on their work.

Caveat emptor, Dutch composers have been around for some time, quite interesting with neat, multi-voiced theories on how music is to unfold, as Benedictus a Sancto Josepho (Buns) for short is here lived from 1640 to December 1716. If you do not scour the Groves Encyclopedia, you will never know of this Dutch antiquity. It's facinating the musical creative theories we never seem to confront and understand. This book is a helpful guide in this respect.

Each composer's profile is followed admirably comprehensively by a list of 'Compositions' all in generic order(I found a shortage of piano solos, since the Maastricht Treaty, and further back) a 'Bibliography' (mostly Dutch references, so you need to be conversant there) and a 'Discography'.

You will find the Dutch fascinating,compelling, engaging, theoretical, playfull, severe,transgressive,passive, opportunists, and tepid and flaming revolutionists of sorts (when it was fashionable to be so) in all genres, particularly their postmodernist utilization of popular genres, as jazz, like the multi-tiered collective democratic Orkest de Volharding, a lean and mean Woody Herman mixed with Luciano Berio timbres, and the high energy of post war European youth.
The Dutch are fantastic improvisors as the Willem Breuker Kollektief manifests,Breuker largely self taught who hated to practice, rather found the language of improvisation to be a path bearing fruit.He wrote much music for film and theatre which has been another vigorous genre for the Dutch. They know where the corridors, the paths to money resides.And getting away from the setting of Brecht texts was an escape into making money. Improvisors actually became in great abundance, a Marxian surplus in The Netherlands after the Bretton Woods Treaty being eradicated, the time of new Anti-Vietnam demonstrations and liberalism with anarchist tinges which took root over the Western democracies as Holland.You will find no shortage of Dutch virtuosi as(also Bass Clarinetist Harry Spaarney). It's a form of escapism from politics, which after the revolution was over New Complexity Populism took Dutch Roots.
Well written arrangements of or original compositions was a focus for various improvisor collectives, many of which have now vanished and have eradicated their original semi-anarchist affinities. The younger generation all crave the high flown complexity musical language a la Ferneyhough, and even that now has run its course into the ground. Pianists as Ivo Janssen is sopmeone to follow in that he plays the entire Dutch repertoire, at least that which is interesting.
Misha Mengelberg(from the famous musical family) is a fascinating composer improvisor pianist.
There are also wonderful orchestral works by imaginative composers as Peter Schat, Tristan Keuris, Konrad Boehmer(a German prize winner who lives now in Amsterdam). We will never hear these orchestral canvases in the United States, who will do these works?, so you may as well read about these developments of the timbre of the orchestra,masterworks,forgotten neglected as "Symphonies" of Peter Schat or Theo Loevendie,again Tristan Keuris.
(Senator Jesse Helms will not give National Endowment funds for Dutch music,to American Orchestras, let the Dutch support their own kind, Jesse will tell ya, from the tobacco millions he spek fer)

Jolande van der Klis is a well known musicologist and is the editor here, great vision in this rather encyclopedic book. I found the type much too small and utilize a magnifying glass much of the time.

Bravi!

While taking an Introductory course in Oceanography at St.Petersburg Jr.College (FL) I found a copy of this wonderful work in the library. Their acquisition cost was just over $50.00, I see that it now sells for over $100.00, thus I am not sure I wish to buy my own copy. For anyone in the field, it would be a fine additon to their personal library, if one was not in the nearby Public, or College, stacks. While I was particularly interested in the Ecology of Tamp Bay (Fl.) I still found enough basic information which I can related to our Estuary here. I am particularly interested in NEKTON (Blue Crabs and Shriimp) and this text treated them sufficiently well to answer my basic questons. (Net surfers: use your browser on topics such as Estuarine research, Tampa Bay Estuary, etc as a good starting point. This is a fine text, and a scholarly work. It is published by Wiley-Interscience Pubs and certainly carries their fine reputation for worthwhile reading. Those who can handle a modicum of math will enjoy the text, but I rather doubt that the casual reader will ''stay with it'', although it certainly makes a pleasant read, for either an Introductory student, like the undersigned, or for someone who is researching the Science of Oceanography. Too bad it so expensive, it would make a good first year course. As a retired pharmacist, I read many science texts and can only conclude by saying that this one text would certainly fill an important niche in your own personal science library, if you were looking for something on this topic. I guess I will order myself a copy, as I feel that John Day, Charles Hall and W.Mchael Kemp have done a splendid job. Alejandro Yanex-Arancibia brings his vast knowledge of ecology as seen by one from the areas south of the US, in an interesting manner. How would I approve on it? If they ever do an update version, I would love to see chapters on South Pacific benthic organisms, as well as some treatment of life under the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and maybe throw in some information on other extreme environments such as the Dead Sea, and ocean vent tube worms, that sort of thing... Thanks for the opportunity to review this fine text. William R.Bell, RPh, St. Pete Fla. (14Feb1999) You may contact me at '' Squadcar54@aol.com '' *end of text

Although first written in 1856 the author applies a spell-binding style to tell the gruesome history of the birth of the Dutch nation from the unrelenting suppression of the religious and political aspirations of a sophisticated and rich people. In Volume I Motley covers the period from Emporer Charles V to the appointment of Count Alva as military overlord of the Netherlands. In Volume II he continues to describe in great detail the circumstances, personages, and intrigues that so painfully come together and nearly destroy the industrial and economic powerhouse in the low countries. He excellently explains the motives and actions of William of Orange, the follies of his noble friends and their destruction, the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition, and, eventually, the rising of the people against the hated Alva and his mercenary murderers. It is the start of the 80 Year War of which this book covers the first seven bloody years.
Since I found this series in my father's book case and started reading I have not been able to put it down. The series take the reader to live the period and understand the human drama and the hope and perseverance that lift a population to found the most powerful nation in the world.

i bought this book for two reasons: the content and its shape. i like photojournalistic books but this book is groundbraking !!!!! the book itself is a fantastic object 1" thick, 16" long and 5" wide held together by two stainless steel screws. the layout is very effective and the book seems a natural extensions of the narative. everything is clear in place and easy to understand. there are no misteries here. the case against milosevic is made following the 4 counts of his indictment and each one has photographs to support it. not only photographs by gary knight but also photographs takes by serbs that are strongly presented on a 4 page foul out. the captions are cleverly placed at the end of each section and are revelatory about the contenet of the book, not just date and place but stories that make the photographs so real and powerful. a great book. buy it without esitation.

Stylistically, this is quite possibly the best book I've read on the subject. Grierson's prose is often worth reading for its aesthetic merits alone. Indeed, the beauty of the language is superceded only by the beauty of the subject matter.

It's also as much a narrative of the revolt in the Netherlands as it is an analysis of and introduction to J.L. Motley's classic text on the same subject, from which the author quotes shamelessly. Unlike with Motley, however, there is no bias, no gross misinterpretation of the (amply provided) facts to suit some outdated ideological purpose. The tone is that of a civilized liberal British historian -- somewhat arrogant, full of pompous-sounding references and formal eloquence, but pleasantly so. There is, as I've mentioned, no shortage of obscure facts, original sources and reasonably penetrating analysis, yet the book never becomes overwhelmed by it, never loses sight of the very human drama that lies at its core.

If ever a book has embodied the idea of history as a work of art, this (rather than Motley, Prescott, etc) is it.

The author's account of his own escape from Nazi run Vienna and his years in hiding in Holland create a suspenseful narrative that provides us with an insight into the personal struggle for existance during the World War II era. The reader will feel the tension of living beneath the noses of the SS as each day brings with it the chance of being revealed by a neighbor, collaborator or simply someone out to earn a few guilders. Yet Dan Kampelmacher remianed defiant, refusing to wear the yellow star under penalty of death. This is both a page-turner and a resource for scholars of the period. Not to be missed!