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: Chamber ensemble
Buch
Item no.: 264836
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 264674
for: Orchestra and Cimbalo
Score
Item no.: 1541754
for: Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 259107
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 776337
for: Accordion
Item no.: 400969
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 260013
for: Trio
Score
Item no.: 259623
for: Vocal and Piano Reduction
Piano reduction
Item no.: 259342
for: Diatonic accordion
Item no.: 303933
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 221720
for: Organ
Single part Organ
Item no.: 226356
for: Violin, piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 305829
for: VL KLAR T-SAX KLAV
Score, Parts
Item no.: 268798
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 306319
Gesamtausgabe
Item no.: 641480
Bd 065: Der helle Bach. Klavierauszug
Schostakowitsch - Neue Gesamtausgabe 065 (Complete edition)
Item no.: 557290
Bd 004: Symphonie Nr. 4 c-moll
Schostakowitsch - Neue Gesamtausgabe 004 (Complete edition)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Item no.: 458985
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 310208
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 308762
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 306335
for: Organ
Single part Organ
Item no.: 305589
for: Clarinet, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 283170
for: Violin
Item no.: 305746
for: Choir
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 893435
for: Piano
Item no.: 282877
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 840946
for: Mixed choir (SATB/SAB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 309149
for: Symphonic orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 306574
for: Piano
Item no.: 305478
for: 4 saxophones (SATBar)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 306172
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 306277
for: Piano
Item no.: 305448
for: SAX SCHLAGW
Ensemble score
Item no.: 283174
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Study score
Item no.: 310437
for: Flute, viola, guitar
Score, Parts
Item no.: 394474
for: OB HRN VA VC
Stimmen-Set
Item no.: 306551
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 306411
for: Piano, strings
Study score
Item no.: 310145
for: KLAV 4 SCHLAGZ
Piano score
Item no.: 306691
for: Guitar
Item no.: 283235
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Study score
Item no.: 310364
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 308841
for: Violin, cello, organ
Study score
Item no.: 310400
for: 4 recorders (quartet)
Study score
Item no.: 310354
for: Accordion
Item no.: 260953
for: GCH ORG INST
Organ score
Item no.: 308055