From his studies with Otto Ketting De Vries developed a fascination for Stravinsky, Bartók and Berg. Stravinsky is the largest influence for The Hague school of composers: The Hague school can be characterized by the usage of collage-like harmonic blocks, a way of composing associated with composers as Louis Andriessen. Although getting to compositional maturity in this surrounding, it did not take long for de Vries to realize the limitations of this style. Nevertheless, de Vries continued to use an anti-romantic approach to musical writing, shared with The Hague school (Oskamp 11-29).