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: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 870110
for: Voices and Piano
Book
Item no.: 993286
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 993220
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 992810
for: Concert band
Study score
Item no.: 887423
for: Brass band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 881762
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 924696
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 923576
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 923443
for: CHORMUSIK GEMISCHTER CHOR A CAPPELLA GEISTLICH ALBEN
Score
Item no.: 189486
for: Flute, violin, piano
Score
Item no.: 185291
for: SAX ORCH
Score
Item no.: 133161
for: 4 soloists (SATB), mixed choir (SATB), orchestra, organ
Score
Item no.: 131822
for: KLAR-A VC KLAV
Score
Item no.: 158611
for: BASS-FL GBBFL GHETTO BLASTER
Score
Item no.: 154491
for: String instrument
Study score
Item no.: 895538
for: Viola
Score
Item no.: 390999
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 390593
for: Mixed ensemble
Score
Item no.: 833393
for: 2 clarinets
Score
Item no.: 833338
for: Violin
Sheet music
Item no.: 833110
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 833048
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 832961
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Buch
Item no.: 832862
for: Choir
Score
Item no.: 833450
for: Children's choir
Score
Item no.: 114370
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 840690
for: Women's Choir [SA], Mixed Choir [SATB], Soprano Saxophone and Piano
Choir score
Item no.: 839898
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 838170
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Buch
Item no.: 871456
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 614378
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 359182
for: GEMEINDE GCH TRP STR ORG
Score
Item no.: 349045
for: FL STR KLAV
Score
Item no.: 345894
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 327122
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 475606
for: Flute, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 475605
for: Viola, cello, double bass
Score
Item no.: 474096
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 490217
for: FL ABFL OB VL VC CEMB
Score
Item no.: 419795
for: Singstimme Violoncello Schlagzeug, Klavier
Score
Item no.: 482904
for: 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass (string quintet)
Score
Item no.: 478549
for: Mixed ensemble
Score
Item no.: 457288
for: ORCHESTERWERKE KAMMERORCHESTER SOLO-HORN
Score
Item no.: 456751
for: Violine, Kontrabass PERC, Klavier
Score
Item no.: 456144