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: Alto saxophone, piano
Music score
Item no.: 101025
for: Organ
Score
Item no.: 100871
for: Organ
Score
Item no.: 100870
for: Voice, guitar
JAP
Item no.: 633908
for: 2 treble recorders (duet)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 420912
Score
Item no.: 227642
for: Flute
Item no.: 298094
for: Clarinet, bassoon, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1270879
for: Clarinet, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 100877
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 157261
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 240008
for: Violin, orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 197790
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 155701
for: Cello, double bass
Score, Parts
Item no.: 798058
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 261202
for: Clavicembalo O 2 Clavicembali
Score
Item no.: 853951
for: Mandoline, Gitarre und Harfe
Score, Parts
Item no.: 352599
for: Mixed choir (SABar), organ
Organ score
Item no.: 562051
for violin solo
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 794310
for: Klavier, Bratsche und Heckelphon (Tenorsaxophon)
Set of parts
Item no.: 288379
for: Oboe
Music score
Item no.: 103079
Study score
Item no.: 557282
for: GES-H (S) VL VC KLAV
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 108949
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 108919
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 108877
for: Piccolo, orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 329287
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 272038
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 170188
for: Women's choir (SMezA) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 107221
for: Organ
Score
Item no.: 160799
for: Women's choir (smeza), organ
Organ score
Item no.: 498431
for: Cello, piano
Item no.: 142885
for: für Klavier
Item no.: 142492
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 265604
for: für Klavier
Item no.: 112873
for: für Gesang und Klavier
Piano reduction
Item no.: 140181
for: für Violine und Violoncello
Item no.: 124442
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 330041
for: für 3 Klaviere, 3 Harfen und Schlagzeugspieler
Study score
Item no.: 328654
for: für Klarinette und Streichquartett
Partitur
Item no.: 208112
for: für Kammerorchester
Studienpartitur
Item no.: 147359
for: 2 violins, viola, cello, piano (piano quintet)
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 108894
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 176096
for: Violin, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 109181
for: Violin, piano
Set of parts
Item no.: 381828
Arrangement for two Violas
(of "Duetti" for two Violins)
for: 2 violas
Ensemble score
Item no.: 679812
for: 3 solo voices [soprano, counter tenor [alto], tenor), violin, viola, cello
Set of parts
Item no.: 158462
for: Flute, alto saxophone
Ensemble score
Item no.: 299347