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: Violin [flute], piano
Ensemble score, solo part
Item no.: 298148
for: Piano
Item no.: 113691
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 621105
for: Piano
Item no.: 113528
for: Voice, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 644164
for: Mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Score
Item no.: 492598
for: Voice (soprano), chamber ensemble
Study score
Item no.: 113013
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 491837
for: Trumpet
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 113912
for: Cello
Item no.: 113784
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 113291
for: gemischten Chor oder Solisten (SATB) und Orgel
Item no.: 216392
for: Double bass
Item no.: 216496
for: für Sopran und Orchester
Score
Item no.: 176549
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 657724
for: Flute, cello, piano
Buch
Item no.: 177941
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 679276
for: Soprano Voice, SATBB, Piano
Score
Item no.: 173169
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 170190
for: Piano 4 hands [2 pianos 4 hands]
Ensemble score
Item no.: 605786
for: Piano
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 610166
for: Organ
Item no.: 620688
Arrangement of the Sonata for Violoncello and Piano
Russische Musik der Moderne
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 328830
for: Harp
Item no.: 183818
for: Chamber ensemble
Study score
Item no.: 662156
for: TRP-C SCHLAGZ KLAV
Item no.: 330699
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 140833
16-part Mixed Choir
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 380350
for: Oboe, harpsichord
Ensemble score, solo part
Item no.: 420716
for: 2 recorders (SA)
Item no.: 420913
for: POS (FAG) KLAV
Item no.: 130273
Edited from the autographs, manuscript copies and original editions and their revisions
Wiener Urtext Edition
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 158401
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 367354
for: Guitar
Score
Item no.: 226681
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 291905
for: Recorder
Item no.: 146079
for: Mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 103130
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 103083
for: Mixed Choir and Ensemble
Piano reduction
Item no.: 198587
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 303015
for: Flute, cello
Study score
Item no.: 905875
for: Chamber orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 461186
for: Piano
Item no.: 429187
Lyric book
Item no.: 199339
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Piano score, parts
Item no.: 185755
for: Klarinette, Horn, Streichtrio und Klavier
Score, Parts
Item no.: 153603
for: Viola d'amore, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 353247
Anthem (from Sunrise Mass)
for mixed chorus (strings ad lib)
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano; string quartet ad lib.
Score, Parts
Item no.: 606707