Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Music examples and figures -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Notes -- 1 Dutch music in the twentieth century -- Developments prior to World War II -- Developments after World War II -- Notes -- 2 Formative years -- Formative years: neo-tonality and serialism -- Toward textural music, alea, and improvisation -- Collage and syncretism -- Notes -- 3 Politics and "concept" works -- Collaborative opera and collage -- Embodiment of solidarity: agitated chant, "collective" unison, and minimalism -- "Concept" works: dialectical commentary on text -- Ideology, reception, and authenticity -- Notes -- 4 Toward the metaphysical in art (1981-88) -- Dialectics of time and velocity -- De Materie (1984-88): the genesis of a non-opera -- Metaphysics of being and becoming -- Notes -- 5 Ramifications -- The "hard-edged" aesthetics of The Hague school -- The making of an American "guru": from California to New York City -- Analytic explorations: from bebop to Bach -- New music community as a heterotopian site -- Notes -- 6 Operatic collaboration with Peter Greenaway -- Rosa: subverting the narrative -- Writing to Vermeer -- On the interface between music and drama -- Notes -- 7 Contemplative works -- Form and expression in the Trilogy of the Last Day -- Beyond the Trilogy: exploration into madness and hell -- Notes -- 8 Epilogue -- Music as commentary: parody and beyond -- Politics of reception -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Discography -- Index.