On Wednesday 29 October 2025 at 14:00, Carine Alders will publicly defend her doctoral dissertation titled “Caught in a web of silence. Composers in Dutch music history 1920-1955 and the impact of World War II” at the Amsterdam University (UvA). The defence will take place in the Aula – Lutherse Kerk in Amsterdam. The study investigates an often-overlooked segment of Dutch musical heritage: composers active between 1920 and 1955 whose work and lives were disrupted or erased by the war-time occupation of the Netherlands. Alders applies a cultural-historical and network-based approach to expose how professional, social and archival silences shaped the Dutch musical canon. The dissertation can be accessed by clicking here.
Alders’ thesis delves into three phases: the pre-war years (1920-40), the war-time experience (1940-45), and the immediate post-war era up to 1955. She documents how many composers, especially those of Jewish background or associated with resistance, were banned, deported or went into hiding. Their works were suppressed, manuscripts lost and their position in musical historiography marginalised.
In the post-war years, a new musical aesthetic emerged in the Netherlands. Alders argues that because the pre-war generation of composers had been so disrupted, modernist tendencies gained dominance, leaving many earlier works neglected.
The dissertation fills a gap in musicological research by reconnecting the trajectories of Dutch composers whose careers were curtailed or forgotten. By reconstructing personal networks, archival traces and performance histories, Alders highlights how musical history is shaped by social exclusion as much as by aesthetic judgement. She also underscores the consequences of occupation and cultural policy on creative life.
Her work is supported by the Mondriaan Fonds under its “75 Years Freedom” programme.
The study invites a re-evaluation of the Dutch classical music canon: questioning which voices were sidelined and why. It suggests that the repertoire, as taught and performed, remains incomplete. By exposing suppressed composers and their networks, Alders opens pathways for rediscovery, performance and scholarly reassessment.
The defence is open to public. It will take place in the Aula of the Lutherse Kerk (Singel 411, 1012 WN Amsterdam) at 14:00. The committee includes Prof. J.J.E. Kursell and Prof. R. van der Laarse as promoters, with Dr P.B. Lelieveldt as co-promoter.
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention