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: Voice (soprano), chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 683504
for: Voice, 2 violins, viola, cello
Score, Parts
Item no.: 148247
for: 2 voices, piano
Score
Item no.: 564919
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 273619
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 431769
for: Voice, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 100814
for: Bassoon, piano
Book
Item no.: 267139
for: Women's choir (SA) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 160014
for: Voice (soprano), live electronics
Score
Item no.: 773928
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 837551
for: Voice (baritone), 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 644505
for: Trumpet In C or B-Flat and Piano
Book
Item no.: 240615
for: Saxophone Sextet
Score
Item no.: 635178
Flexibility Exercises and Etudes
for: Trumpet
Music lesson book
Item no.: 456993
for: 2 voices (SMez)
Score
Item no.: 492846
for: Voice (soprano), live electronics
Score, CD-ROM
Item no.: 472134
for: 3 soloists (STB), boys’ choir, mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Score
Item no.: 297537
Seven Songs for soprano and violin to poems by Dezső Tandori
for: Voice (soprano), violin
Score
Item no.: 255718
Oper/Operette
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Book
Item no.: 216969
Hawkes Pocket Scores
for: Chamber ensemble
Study score
Item no.: 604934
Item no.: 355812
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 576837
for: Clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 1542124
for: Accordion
Music score
Item no.: 325367
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 614783
for Timpani
for: Timpani
Music lesson book
Item no.: 477461
for: Mixed choir (SSATBB) [6 voices] a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 335309
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 665215
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 211566
for: SATB
Choir score
Item no.: 457007
An Opera in three Acts and a Prologue
Hawkes Pocket Scores HPS 749
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Study score (Hardcover)
Item no.: 365371
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 197518
for: Voice, horn, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 198569
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 304272
for Oboe and String Orchestra
for: Oboe, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 667016
for: Violin, cello
Score, Parts
Item no.: 680571
for: Orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1557473
Ars Novakkordeon
for: Accordion, piano
Item no.: 489874
for: Baritone saxophone
Item no.: 272172
Klassik
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 281565
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Item no.: 365427
for: Organ
Item no.: 372441
Gegenwartsmusik
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 362896
for: Accordion
Item no.: 380556
Eulenburg Studienpartituren
for: Piano, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 471509
Streichtrio Nr. VL 78
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 654876
Hinshaw Sacred
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Choir score
Item no.: 903606