A forthcoming article by Simon Richter, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, places Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato at the centre of a discussion on Dutch water management and climate adaptation. Scheduled for publication in Blue Papers 2027, the essay, “The Canto Ostinato of Dutch Water Management and Climate Adaptation Policy,” proposes the 1979 composition as a framework for understanding how long-term public policy takes shape amid competing interests, uncertain futures and environmental pressures. Rather than arguing for a single unifying “water narrative,” Richter suggests that Dutch adaptation policy resembles an ensemble performance: different participants repeat, adjust and combine their own material while responding to one another over time.
Ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato, originally written for keyboard instruments and frequently performed in varying instrumental configurations, is built from a succession of short musical cells. While the sequence of notes is fixed, performers decide collectively how often to repeat cells, when to move onward, and how to shape tempo, dynamics and transitions. The work’s form therefore develops through listening, duration and negotiation rather than conventional thematic progression. Richter identifies these qualities as particularly relevant to the Netherlands’ approach to sea-level rise. Engineers, ecologists, designers, regional authorities, scientists, water boards and local residents each bring distinct priorities and temporal perspectives to the policy process. In this reading, coherence need not depend on full agreement; it can emerge through sustained coordination and an awareness of when action or transition is required.
The article gives particular attention to meegroeien—literally, “growing along with”—an approach to coastal protection that works with sediment dynamics, tidal systems and ecological development rather than relying exclusively on fixed defensive infrastructure. Richter traces the roots of this approach through several decades of Dutch research and planning, including the 1986 Rijkswaterstaat report *Zeespiegelrijzing: Worstelen met wassend water*, later Deltares studies on accelerated sea-level rise, and initiatives associated with ARK Rewilding Nederland, Stroming, WWF and landscape-design practices. The presentation of *Meegroeien met zeespiegelstijging* by the fourth consortium of the Kennisprogramma Zeespiegelstijging at the 2025 Deltacongres is presented as an important recent point in that longer process. It did not establish a final policy choice, Richter argues, but helped bring together technical, ecological and spatial perspectives around shared physical constraints.
Richter’s use of Canto Ostinato is not intended as a decorative comparison between music and policy. Instead, it underlines the value of the composition’s collaborative structure in a field where decisions may take decades to implement but where delay can narrow future options. The essay argues for making the iterative character of policymaking more visible, creating institutional settings in which participants can listen across disciplines, and separating urgent preparatory measures from definitive decisions about long-term systems. Proposed large-scale pilots in Zeeland, including projects involving double dikes and transitional polders, illustrate the tensions involved: they may support adaptive coastal development, but also raise concerns about depoldering, flood risk and regional identity. By returning to Ten Holt’s model of repetition, variation and collective timing, Richter presents Canto Ostinato as a work whose performance practice can illuminate the cultural and practical challenges of climate adaptation.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention