The classical modern period, 1900-1945, saw a great deal of cultural change, and many different composers helped shape the musical landscape of the early 20th century. Browse our sheet music and scores, take a look at our Classical Modern Sheet Music Downloads, and explore the wide world of classical modernism with Stretta Music today
The horrors of World War I brought about such a shift in perspective, that art would never be the same again. The cultural and social changes that had already begun at the end of the 19th century led to new prospects, which were mirrored and expressed through various innovative artistic movements, them sum of which is called Classic Modernism.
During the 20th century, the boundaries of tonality were stretched so far that one could no longer speak of tonal music. The most striking examples of this are polytonality, employed by composers like Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, and Charles Ives, and to an even greater extent serialism, the twelve-tone music of Arnold Schönberg and his students.
The rise of nationalism in the late 19th century sparked a great interest in rediscovering folk music. New technical developments, such as the invention of the phonograph, also made it easier to document and collect folk music. Great folk Pioneers were the Romanian composer Béla Bartók, the Czech composer Leo Janáček, the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, and the Australian-American composer Percy Grainger.
This development led to a new idiom within classical music, both melodically and rhythmically. Good examples of the integration of folklore into classical modern music are the melodies from Janáček’s Jenufa, which are based on the rhythm and intonation of the Czech language, and Bartók’s Second Violin Rhapsody.
Expressionists aimed to capture true emotions without glossing over them. Above all, they looked at the subjective inner world, in contrast to the outer world, and left all traditional ideals of beauty behind.
Expressionist music is characterised by dissonance, extreme dynamics and great contrasts in colour, pitch and effect. In music, expressionism is generally associated with the Second Viennese School, founded by Arnold Schönberg and his students Anton Webern and Alban Berg, and the dodecaphonic, twelve-tone technique they used, known as serialism.
Examples of expressionist music include Schönberg’s Erwartung, 1909, and Berg’s Wozzeck, 1922.
Another classical modern departure from the ideals of the Romantic Period was to draw on forms and tropes of the Baroque Period and the Classical Period. This was expressed in the use of traditional musical forms, as in Martinů’s Concerto da Camara, 1937, the use of traditional instrumentation, as in Manuel de Falla’s Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet & Cello, 1926, and also in the use of thematic material from the 18th and 19th centuries, such as in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, 1920.
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730719
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 4032
for: Soloists [SBar], Mixed Choir [SATB] and Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 641332
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 619172
for: GCH (SSAATTBB) HA
Choir score
Item no.: 582591
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 281986
for: Accordion
Music score
Item no.: 281970
for: Mixed choir (SAM) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1340385
for: Choir
Choir score
Item no.: 628372
for: Choir
Choir score
Item no.: 616018
for: Voice, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 149572
for: Concert band
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1076923
for: GCH (SSATBB) (+ KLAV)
Item no.: 174664
Viola, Orchester und Fernchor
Studienpartitur
for: CHORMUSIK GEMISCHTER CHOR MIT BEGLEITUNG GEISTLICH EINZELN
Study score
Item no.: 236599
Audio-CD
Item no.: 158512
Galopp "Schön ist's im Winter"op. 57
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Chorstimme
Item no.: 300993
for: Women's choir (SSAA/ SSA/ SA) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1697181
for: Voice, piano
Piano score
Item no.: 617666
for: Choir (2 voices), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 814642
for: Frauenchor (SSAA) a cappella, 2 Soli (SA) ad libitum
Choir score
Item no.: 261679
for: Mixed choir, instruments
Ensemble score
Item no.: 226632
for: Organ
Item no.: 287951
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 153672
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 196266
"When at night I go to sleep" from "Hansel and Gretel"
for: Voice (medium), piano
Music score
Item no.: 724716
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 793500
Opera in one Act
Piano reduction
Item no.: 748275
for: 3 recorders (SSA)
Item no.: 397655
for: Treble recorder, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1291800
for: Soprano saxophone, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1291797
for: 5 saxophones
Sheet music
Item no.: 1291512
for: 4 clarinets
Sheet music
Item no.: 1291504
for: 4 woodwinds (quartet)
Sheet music
Item no.: 1291498
for: Concert band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1601836
Fantasie über "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht"
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 747185
for: Concert band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1315123
for: für Kammerensemble (2 Violinen,Violoncello, Harmonium und Klavier)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 147082
for: Organ
Sheet music
Item no.: 1567
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score, parts (pdf download)
Item no.: 3201
for: Piano 4 hands
Sheet music
Item no.: 3149
for: Organ
Sheet music
Item no.: 4753
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Choir score
Item no.: 641236
aus op. 5; nach Ps. 130 (Lieder nach Texten des AT (Psalmen u.a.))
for: Mixed choir (SABar) a cappella
Music score
Item no.: 730065
for: 12 cellos
Set of parts
Item no.: 353678
for: gemischter Chor (SATB), Solo (Mezzo) und Klavier (Orgel)
Piano reduction
Item no.: 351378
for: Soloists, narrator, children's choir, instruments
Lyric book
Item no.: 153323
for: Women's choir (SSA) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1340248