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: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 120730
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 670062
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 668690
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 666004
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 771851
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 771847
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1548181
for: 6 voices, percussion ensemble (6 parts)
Score
Item no.: 777795
for: Chamber ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 964317
for: Viola, piano
Book
Item no.: 964175
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 964151
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 964146
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 861031
for: Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Accordion, Marimba and Double Bass
Score, Parts
Item no.: 858362
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Buch
Item no.: 859285
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 858787
for: Voice (ssoprano), flute, cello, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 778214
for: Voice, 2 violins, viola, cello
Score, Parts
Item no.: 776944
for: Voice (high), clarinet, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 778503
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 778867
for: Voice (soprano), instruments
Score
Item no.: 778267
for: Voice, guitar [piano]
Score
Item no.: 776730
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 897215
for: Organ
Item no.: 296888
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 319002
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 772214
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 266578
for: 2 Trumpets and Organ
Book
Item no.: 240693
for: Trumpet or Cornet
Book
Item no.: 240601
for: Timpani and Piano
Score
Item no.: 818468
for: Flute ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 818158
for: Voice (low), piano
Music score
Item no.: 688355
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 687077
for: Brass ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 818560
for: 3 Oboes And Tamborin
Book
Item no.: 267030
for: 4 Posaunen
Score, Parts
Item no.: 266987
for: Trumpet, concert band
Item no.: 367306
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 131573
for: 2 Saxophones and Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 874837
for: Singstimme, Englischhorn oder Viola oder Violine, Orgel
Spielpartitur, Singpartitur, Stimmensatz
Item no.: 873664
for: Sopran solo, Alt-Flöte
Singpartitur, Stimme
Item no.: 872712
for: Violin, clarinet, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 771093
for: Harp, 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 673061
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1016888
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1711602
A collection of temporary pieces
for: 3 trumpets
Score, Parts
Item no.: 185122