I have been a fan of Escher for a long time, and own several books relating to him, but for the serious student in art this is the book to own. There is an well done biography about his productive life. But lets face it , it's the pictures and there are hundred's, some you may be familliar with but most will be a pleasant surprise.

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!

Etty began life with the same silly angst and shallow aspirations that we endure each day. Then came the war and her experience as a Jew in Holland. The transformation of this young intellectual to a woman of great depth takes the reader on a soul journey of such transcendence that one's paradigms are forever changed.

Add to the story a great and musical quality of writing and a brilliant mind . You have Etty, my heroine, my mentor.

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.

We absolutely loved this book. The pictures were gorgious and the facts and information fascinating. Most people we have talked to have always thought tulips ORIGINATED in Holland. We thought that, too, but learned differently in this great book! If you love tulips, this book is for you!

I really loved the book! I think that's partly because my mum's uncle wrote it,(we still live in the Netherlands) but also because it's very lively written and full of humour and good sense. You really get a good view on his live (in the Netherlands and in Canada), his thoughts and the difficulties he met, but also on emigrating in general. I think it's really a nice way to learn more of the history of our lands and the background of the people that now live there.

I'm preparing for my second trip to Amsterdam, so when reviewing guidebooks for this second trip, I have some idea of the places the guidebook is discussing.

Fodor's Gay Guide to Amsterdam is the best of the many guidebooks I've reviewed. It is well organized, and Andrew Collins communicates in his writing how this exciting city really is, a vibrant wonderful place with endless things to see and do, for anyone, gay or straight.

If you're looking for a good guide to make your trip a success, then this is the guide for you.

The Laser technology is the gate of the future success on electronic technilogy. It is the bryillian raw technlogy. It is the basic infrastructure of all electrnic technologies.

Hofstede explains how management can influence organisations by using of budgets. He explains this as a 'game'. It is a study, he has done within approximately 40 organisations in The Netherlands. It is written in a very simple way and is understandable to all readers.

This book is a very sad, but true story.