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: 3 Trompeten in C und Streichorchester
Solostimme Trompete II in C
Item no.: 731255
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 852940
1. Die Gewissheit "Ob ich morgen leben werde"
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 747030
4. Abendlied "Augen, meine lieben Fensterlein"
for: Mixed choir (SSATBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 746999
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 885489
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 873634
for: Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 259113
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 906121
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 904034
for: Mixed choir (SAB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 931918
Choir score
Item no.: 1175558
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 854137
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1172539
for: Mixed choir (SATB); piano ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 910489
for: Male choir (TTBB), piano
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 931589
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Buch
Item no.: 1542562
for: Viola, string orchestra
Single part (Viola solo)
Item no.: 1351691
for: Voice (soprano), chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 1161605
for: Clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 1557592
for: Sopran und 5 Instrumente, Studienpartitur
Study score
Item no.: 264743
for: Mand, Gitarre, Harfe [alle dritteltönig], Set mit 3 Spielpartituren
Set of parts
Item no.: 1542832
for: Chamber ensemble
Set of parts
Item no.: 1542409
for: Piano
Score
Item no.: 853582
for: Mezzosopran und Ensemble, Partitur
Score
Item no.: 1542498
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1542772
for: 5 brass winds
Score
Item no.: 111921
for: Double bass
Score
Item no.: 487282
for: Symphonic orchestra
Buch
Item no.: 264797
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 221961
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 887028
for: Trio
Score, Parts
Item no.: 186408
for: Accordion
Study score
Item no.: 1542496
for: Flute, harp
Score
Item no.: 1317393
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 779055
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 1542407
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 219291
for: Voice, ensemble
Score
Item no.: 776720
for: Symphonic orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 260370
for: Flute
Score
Item no.: 259788
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 218885
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 219433
for: Cello or 2 Celli and Piano
Score
Item no.: 139867
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 851299
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1542578