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: Voice (medium), piano
Vocal score, ensemble scores
Item no.: 114116
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 108843
for: Harp
Music score
Item no.: 666956
for: Trumpet, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 683506
for: 2 pianos
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1552996
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 659627
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 658977
for: Piano, string orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 186411
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 180892
for: Mixed choir (SATB), string orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 209199
for: Clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello
Set of parts (4)
Item no.: 616968
for: 3 oboes [soprano saxophones]
Score, Parts
Item no.: 634621
for: Viola, organ
Item no.: 624462
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 499263
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 627402
for: Clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 767039
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 490299
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 666735
for: Percussion
Item no.: 605329
for: Guitar
Item no.: 161588
for: Horn
Item no.: 130292
for: Flügelhorn und Klavier
Score, solo part
Item no.: 1199477
from Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 170842
for: Voice (soprano), double bass
Music score
Item no.: 656238
for: Organ
Single edition
Item no.: 497747
for: Flute, guitar
Score, part
Item no.: 280090
for: Violin, orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 108827
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 109209
for: für Trompete (in B oder C) und Klavier
Piano reduction
Item no.: 462070
for: String orchestra, percussion
Study score
Item no.: 413933
for: Organ
Item no.: 469796
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 283717
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 388782
for: gemischter Chor (SATB) a cappella (und 1 Schlagzeug ad libitum)
Choir score
Item no.: 614146
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 311066
for: Piano
Item no.: 145162
for: Piano
Item no.: 213613
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 155488
for: 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Cellos
Score
Item no.: 1148847
for: für Oboe und Klavier
Piano reduction
Item no.: 140240
for: für Chor SATB und 2 Vibraphone
Score
Item no.: 133513
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 113504
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 113986
for: Frauenstimme und Klavier
Item no.: 165260
for: Violine und Tonband oder für 4 Violinen
Ensemble score
Item no.: 113333
for: für Klavier
Item no.: 347527
for: 2 violins, piano
Piano score, Solo parts
Item no.: 218490