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: Violin
Item no.: 336704
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 170192
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 852030
for: Horn
Music score
Item no.: 267010
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 857852
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Study score
Item no.: 904833
Symphony for Piano and Orchestra
for: Piano, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 153105
for: Flute, guitar
Book
Item no.: 101251
for: Flute and Recorder
Score
Item no.: 238459
for: 2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba (quintet); latin percussion ad lib.
Score, Parts
Item no.: 611603
for: Orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 196692
Die Antwort der Quellen auf ein umstrittenes Thema
Verbesserte und stark erweiterte Neuausgabe
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 420416
for: Piano
Item no.: 153708
for: Clarinet
Score
Item no.: 259834
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 964129
for: Male choir (TBarBarB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 107215
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 280188
for: Alto saxophone (E-flat)
Music score
Item no.: 349835
for: Violin, piano
Ensemble score
Item no.: 382005
for: Sopran solo, Kontrabass
Spielpartitur, Singpartitur
Item no.: 474326
for: Mezzosopran solo, Bariton solo, Klavier
Singpartitur, Spielpartitur
Item no.: 114222
for: Alt- oder Tenor-Blockflöte
Item no.: 293427
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 762266
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 109253
for: Piano
Item no.: 111295
for: Viola and String Orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 208920
for: Voice (soprano), orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 103043
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 684743
for: Bassoon
Music score
Item no.: 169154
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 202833
for: Treble recorder, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 665147
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 108759
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 166042
for: Horn, string orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 470486
for: Violin, double bass
Score, part
Item no.: 604544
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 282888
for: Double bass, piano
Ensemble score
Item no.: 381451
for: Viola, cello, double bass
Ensemble score
Item no.: 382944
for: Violin, piano
Ensemble score
Item no.: 381964
for: 2 flutes (duet)
Score
Item no.: 381847
for: 3 Soprano Voices, Alto Voice and 2 Drums
Book
Item no.: 911919
for six voices
for: 6 voices
Score
Item no.: 683486
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Score
Item no.: 107558
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 379612
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 113508
for: für Violine,Violoncello und Klavier
Spielpartitur
Item no.: 338329
for: Mezzosopran und 7 Spieler
Partitur
Item no.: 113093