"Wat in Middelburg kan, dat kan niet": Jeugd & Muziek Zeeland / Nieuwe Muziek Zeeland

Abstract

From the late 1960s onwards, the Dutch province of Zeeland’s capital Middelburg was to become the Dutch bridgehead of international avant-garde art. The city would hold this unique position for about two decades. Directly responsible for was the equally famous and notorious association Youth & Music Zeeland (Jeugd en Muziek Zeeland- J&MZ)/ New Music Zeeland Foundation (Nieuwe Muziek Zeeland - NMZ) with her nonconformistic creed: ´We pick up everything another does not´. Anno 2019, exactly fifty years later, the merits of J&MZ/NMZ - several decades focal point of the national and international media, with it's indisputed highlight the Festival New Music (Festival Nieuwe Muziek) and the creation of the worldfamous Xenakis Ensemble - have not been recognised as (Zeeland's) cultural heritage, but have rather disappeared from the collective memory. A bizarre observation, which was the direct reason for this study, which examined the question of how avant-garde art was able to manifest itself in such an exuberant way, particularly in the years 1969-1989, precisely in what at the time was considered a dormant and remote provincial town within the Dutch cultural world. A town where for instance the artwork of international figureheads Iannis Xenakis, György Kurtag and Morton Feldman received it's broad Dutch introduction and where prominents like Louis Andriessen, Willem Breuker and Leo Cuypers with their newest creations - such as the legendary and laurelled commissioned work Zeeland Suite - felt at home. This dissertation 'What is possible in Middelburg, is not possible' presents the impressive historical curve of J&MZ/NMZ, guided by extensive lively photographic material as a compelling triptych. Hence the years of enormous creativity of ´The Middelburg Miracle´ J&MZ/NMZ from the period 1969-1989 deserve to be kept in grateful and lively memory, partly in order to inspire future generations.