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: Organ
Item no.: 303676
for: Latin percussion, double bass
Score
Item no.: 580107
for: Trumpet
Music score
Item no.: 240730
Loops for Edgar Froese für Erweitertes Klavier zu vier Händen und Zuspielung
for: Piano 4 hands
Buch
Item no.: 1541944
for: Piano
Score
Item no.: 368694
for: Cello, orchestra
Score (spiral binding)
Item no.: 665269
for: Flute, harp [piano]
Item no.: 381273
for: Brass ensemble, organ [piano/keyboard]
Score
Item no.: 667779
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Item no.: 120937
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 315661
for: Mezzo / Baritone Voice, Piano Accompaniment
Book
Item no.: 411839
for: Clarinet, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 613978
for: Piano
Item no.: 494071
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 477670
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 211780
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 108891
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 108828
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 108826
for: GES-T (A) TRP SCHLAGW KLAV
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 294919
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 661841
for: Trumpet
Score
Item no.: 187272
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 371312
for: gemischter Chor (SSAATTBB), Violine und Violoncello
Score
Item no.: 743443
for: Voice (medium), piano
Score
Item no.: 677206
for: Cor Anglais [Oboe] and Piano
Buch
Item no.: 432157
for: Clarinet, piano
Score
Item no.: 206879
for Solo Double Bass
for: Double bass
Music score
Item no.: 768083
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1147386
for double bass solo
Peters Contemporary Library
for: Double bass
Music score
Item no.: 682892
for: Baritone saxophone
Music score
Item no.: 631901
Ensemble score
Item no.: 381961
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 683491
for: Piano 4 hands
Item no.: 381999
for: Flute, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 380131
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 381658
for: 2 voices
Score
Item no.: 381583
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 172066
for: Singstimme (S), ALT-Flöte / Blockflöte (S)/PICC-FL) Schlagzeug
Score
Item no.: 381280
for: Piano
Score
Item no.: 779352
for: Piano
Item no.: 656876
for: Harp
Item no.: 120590
Textbuch/Libretto
Item no.: 344714
for: für Violine und Streichquartett
Partitur
Item no.: 243320
for: Violin
Sheet music
Item no.: 260207