Don writes:

>Although the centuries keep chugging forward, Sweelinck
>is still considered the finest Dutch composer of classical music.

By some Don, by some....

True: Sweelinck was great.  And true: we Dutch sank into a coma after
that for some centuries when we thought we would only flourish by imitating
Germany and France.

Here's a list of Dutch composers that deservedly would be as widely known
as some others if e.g.  Naxos was not an American label:

Willem Pijper, Matthijs Vermeulen, Hendrik Andriessen, Henk Badings, Ton
de Leeuw, Louis Andriessen, Peter Schat, Lex van Delden, Rudolf Escher,
Geert van Keulen, Tristan Keuris and so on and so on.  definetely all
of export quality.

Note that these are all 20th-21st century composers; it has always seemed
to me that we only started again composing decently when we stopped
imitating others.

I think contemporary Dutch composing is definitely much underrated
internationally.  There are three reasons for this I believe:

1.  In Holland we do not posess the backing of a very powerfull record
company.

2.  We do not have the advantage of blatant chauvinistic musical periodicals
like the British Grammophone.

3.  We have a flourishing and very diverse musical life in terms of
performing arts.  This leads to a certain feeling of fulfilment in our
musical scene which prevents us from crossing the border.

regards, Jos Janssen
Not in the least embarrased by the level of Dutch composers