ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the principal musical influences on Andriessen's music of the 1970s. It provides an introduction to some of the works that immediately precede De Staat, many of which were written for the Orkest De Volharding. Willem Breuker, Misha Mengelberg and Theo Loevendie, all prominent figures in the field of improvisation during the sixties, also wrote fully composed music, both for jazz musicians and for the classical concert hall. Younger musicians such as Maarten Altena, Guus Janssen and Peter van Bergen have continued this tradition of bridging jazz and classical worlds. In this context, Andriessen's interest in jazz signals not so much a laissez-faire attitude to the 'music of the people' as a perception that jazz is something fundamentally different from pop. Jazz performance styles appealed, then, as part of a wider concern to escape the instrumental and vocal styles associated with classical music.
