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: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1139603
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1137983
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 1162425
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 107453
for: 4 soloists (SATB), 2 mixed choirs (SATB, SATB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 136667
for: SOLI gemischter Chor Kinderchor, 21 INST
Score
Item no.: 205720
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 379520
for: Violin
Sheet music
Item no.: 1548054
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Score
Item no.: 778090
for: 3 soloists (SSA), women's choir (SSA) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 776330
for: Narrator, chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 779042
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 837228
for: Trombone, Piano and Percussion
Set of parts
Item no.: 858398
for: Voice, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1542343
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 835588
for: Trumpet
Music score
Item no.: 835562
for: Organ, Organ Accompaniment, Bass Voice
Buch
Item no.: 835956
for: Chamber ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 837859
for: Wind Instruments, Piano, Double Bass and Timpani
Score, Parts
Item no.: 838539
for: Flute, guitar
Score
Item no.: 837644
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 837636
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 634755
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 634681
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 840592
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 835838
for: Accordion
Music score
Item no.: 835834
for: Bass Clarinet, SATB
Piano reduction
Item no.: 835827
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 835694
for: Clarinet, Flute, Harp, Celeste, Piano and Percussion
Score
Item no.: 840758
for: Latin percussion
Set of parts
Item no.: 836179
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 390957
for: Voice
Score
Item no.: 806465
Score
Item no.: 391056
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 390507
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 838150
for: Woodwind ensemble
Set of parts
Item no.: 832335
for: 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, organ
Organ score, solo parts
Item no.: 769258
for: Mezzo-Soprano, Ensemble
Buch
Item no.: 860655
for: Children's choir, clarinet, violin, piano
Set of parts
Item no.: 778424
for: Voice, instruments
Score
Item no.: 778210
for: Voice, harp [piano]
Piano reduction
Item no.: 778415
for: Harpsichord and Piano
Book
Item no.: 977486
for: Oboe
Music score
Item no.: 977383
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 977371
for: Flute and Harpsichord
Book
Item no.: 977199