The Golden Age

The Golden Age is a programmatic composition in four movements. I Overture For the Netherlands, the seventeenth century was a period of great flourishing in the fields of economy, culture and politics; thus it is called the Golden Age. Overseas trade boomed, and the Dutch East India Company (known as the VOC by the Dutch) was founded and expanded to become a powerful -and, at the time - modern enterprise. II ¡Adiós españoles!(Farewell, Spaniards!) In 1567, the Spanish army invaded, led by the Duke of Alva. There was a fierce resistance against the Spanish tyranny; toward the end of the sixteenth century, the Dutch proclaimed theRepublic. However, the Spanish continued the war. Only with the Treaty of Münster in 1648 did the Dutch get their much sought-after independence. This was also the end of the Eighty Years’ War. III Rembrandt’s Night WatchThe field of culture, particularly literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, the art of printing, and cartography developed fast. It was in the Golden Age that the celebrated painter Rembrandt van Rijn created his famous Night Watch. IV The Admiral Overseas trade entailed the colonization of large areas in Asia, from where precious products that yielded lots of money were brought in. Surrounding countries were also involved in such practices. Colonizers poached on each other’s territories in the literal and figurative sense - in this context the Anglo-Dutch Sea Wars are legendary. The fourth movement starts with the English patriotic song Rule Britannia, after which the Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter makes the English change their tune; one can even hear the roaring of cannons. When the smoke of battle has cleared, a small fragment of a Dutch song about Michiel de Ruyter appears, followed by a fitting closing.