After the Second World War, there emerged a new generation of composers, who sought to stretch the boundaries of music history, and find new and exciting styles and forms. Browse our sheet music and scores, take a look at our Modern Classical Music, and explore the wide world of contemporary music with Stretta Music today!
Dodecaphony or Serialism is the use of the twelve semi-tones as the harmonic and structural basis, rather than the traditional harmonic key structure which governed classical music until the turn of the twentieth century. Arnold Schoenberg was the father of twelve-tone composition in the 1930s. Moving into the post-war era, all dodecaphonic or serial musical parameters, including note lengths, dynamics and even timbres were set in rows. After 1948, the Darmstadt “holiday courses” became the centre of Dodecaphony or Serialism for almost a decade. Despite the mathematical and logical basis, twelve-tone composition still produced many highly emotional works such as Luigi Nono’s Il Canto sospeso.
As the technical and electronic possibilities continued to grow and thrive after the war, the first studio solely dedicated to electronic music was founded in Cologne in 1951 by Herbert Eimert. Important electronic music composers were Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ernst Krenek, Maurice Kagel, Luciano Berio and Iannis Xenakis, who was also an assistant to the architect Le Corbusier.
Aleatoric comes from the Latin “alea”, meaning dice. Aleatoric composition leaves elements of the music to chance. The American composer John Cage was the first to experiment with aleatoric music, and many others followed, in particular K. Stockhausen, P. Boulez, W. Lutosławski.
Soundscape composition plays with sense and emotion, it uses long drawn musical landscapes to give the listener time to recognise and experience the music in a whole new way. The most important compositions include Atmosphères and Lontano by György Ligeti. Other works of this type were created by Luigi Nono, Krzysztof Penderecki, Iannis Xenakis.
Minimalism also came to Europe from the USA. Minimalism uses repetitive, wide blocks of sound, without strong contrasts or dramatic changes. It is in the repetition, with gradual, small changes, that the minimalist effect is achieved. The pioneers of minimalism in the 1960s were American composers Philip Glass, John Adams, Le Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich. They were followed in Europe by Henryk Górecki and Arvo Pärt.
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 217812
for: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 311702
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 494782
for: Violin (solo), viola (solo), string orchestra
Piano reduction, solo parts
Item no.: 290017
for: 2 violins
Ensemble score, solo parts
Item no.: 499293
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 655551
for Alto Saxophone
Collection Vincent David
for: Alto saxophone (E-flat)
Single edition
Item no.: 684958
Score
Item no.: 381857
for: Piano
Piano Solo
Item no.: 1046044
for: 2 voices (SB), string orchestra, latin percussion
Study score
Item no.: 108834
for: 12-stimmiger Frauenchor (4S,4Mez,4A) und Orchester
Study score
Item no.: 446606
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 225379
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 228253
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 380900
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 139467
for two pianos
for: Piano, orchestra
Piano reduction (2 piano's)
Item no.: 109179
for: Clarinet
Item no.: 353635
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 226680
op. 97
for: Violine, Klarinette und Klavier
Score, Parts
Item no.: 154842
für Klavier
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 380979
for: Double bass
Music score
Item no.: 614209
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 101002
for: Voice
Score
Item no.: 381651
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 109331
for: Treble recorder
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 630646
for: Violin, piano
Ensemble score
Item no.: 464066
for: Oboe, piano
Music score, online audio
Item no.: 641708
for: Alto saxophone (E-flat)
Music score
Item no.: 773482
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 583529
A sonata for two clarinets - one in Bb and one in A.
for: 2 clarinets
Ensemble score
Item no.: 279855
for: Classical guitar
Music score
Item no.: 466264
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 182151
for: Clarinet
Music lesson book, CD-Rom
Item no.: 226350
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 153556
for Percussion solo
for: Percussion
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1017119
for: Guitar
Score
Item no.: 365514
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 659694
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 762847
for piano to 4 hands
for: Piano 4 hands
Single edition
Item no.: 732602
for: Violin, viola, cello, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 108740
for: Voice (medium), piano
[englisch]
Item no.: 120680
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 367354
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 191719
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 605430
Score
Item no.: 381861
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 108938
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 108917