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: Gitarrenduo
Buch
Item no.: 257906
for: Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 259676
for: Guitar [lute]
Music score
Item no.: 880184
for: Tenor, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
Study score
Item no.: 1542844
for: 4 trombones (quartet)
Buch
Item no.: 1542655
for: Violin, piano
Score
Item no.: 853492
for: Mixed Choir [SATB] and Guitar
Choir score
Item no.: 1175550
Choir score
Item no.: 840401
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 840292
Choir score
Item no.: 1177707
Choir score
Item no.: 1177062
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1176677
for: Double bass
Score
Item no.: 259530
for: Flute
Score
Item no.: 223851
for: Diatonic accordion
Item no.: 186774
for: Accordion
Music score
Item no.: 218944
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 259340
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 330985
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 220034
for: Frauensti, Klavier, Set mit Spielpartitur und Gesangspartitur
Buch
Item no.: 1542342
for: VA ORCH / PART
Score
Item no.: 300569
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219146
for: Accordion
Single edition
Item no.: 221256
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 134582
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 294789
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 259350
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 638653
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 911959
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 931106
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Score
Item no.: 925966
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 905967
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 904501
for: Mixed choir (SAB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 904145
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Book
Item no.: 993153
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 220494
for: Diatonic accordion
Item no.: 213239
for: Voice
Score
Item no.: 407592
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 877749
for: Trumpet [2 Trumpets] and Piano
Score
Item no.: 873793
for: Voice (soprano), orchestra
Score
Item no.: 778757
for: Mixed Choir a Cappella
Buch
Item no.: 264688
for: Narrator, chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 779031
for: Saxophone
Score
Item no.: 260041
for: Choir and Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 259862