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: Timpani
Music lesson book
Item no.: 294246
for: Choir
CD
Item no.: 1149288
for: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 620066
for: Mezzosopran und Tonband oder für 3 Stimmen
Partitur
Item no.: 375823
Diary entries, personal messages
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 669518
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 327478
for: Voices, narrator, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 352432
for: 2 harps
2 Performance scores
Item no.: 684314
for: Voice (baritone), piano
Music score
Item no.: 102983
for: Voice (medium), piano
Piano score
Item no.: 287657
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 837217
for: Timpani
Music lesson book
Item no.: 133882
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 839177
for: Mixed Choir, Violin and Organ
Study score
Item no.: 606856
for: 3 voices, 7 instrumentalists
Score
Item no.: 379391
for: 4 saxophones (SATBar)
Score
Item no.: 857496
for: 2 bassoons
Ensemble score
Item no.: 266853
for: Flute
Score
Item no.: 1542007
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano, string quartet
Score, Parts
Item no.: 682191
for: Frauenstimme
Item no.: 113094
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 619362
for: Viola, electronics
Music score
Item no.: 473856
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 351745
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 389766
for horn (2017/2018)
for: Horn
Music score
Item no.: 1541800
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Item no.: 353268
for mixed choir and piano
for: gemischter Chor (SATB) und Klavier
Choir score
Item no.: 725835
for: Voice (soprano), flute, harp
Ensemble score
Item no.: 859699
for: 6 Männerstimmen (AATBarBarB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 353903
Text with musical examples
Music lesson book (spiral binding)
Item no.: 290100
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 172808
for: Piano 4 hands [2 pianos 4 hands]
Ensemble score
Item no.: 563892
for: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 476962
für gemischten Chor a cappella (2007)
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 330775
MUSA – Music of the United States Vol. 3
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 635514
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 120759
for: Trumpet
Music lesson book
Item no.: 456924
for: Oboe, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 100862
for: Bläserquintett
Score, Parts
Item no.: 266709
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 620179
Opera in two files, eight pictures and an epilogue
according to the Novelle of the same name by Zofia Posmysz
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 664732
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 489041
for: Mixed choir (SSAATBB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 635762
for: Trumpet
Music lesson book
Item no.: 456992
Exercises For Advancing Players
for: Treble recorder
Music score
Item no.: 663968
for Tuba (2018)
for: Tuba
Music score
Item no.: 1541798
for SATB choir
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Chorpartitur with piano line for rehearsal only
Item no.: 727183