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: Mixed ensemble
Score
Item no.: 254869
for: Organ
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 107229
from "Suite for Variety Orchestra" for flute and piano
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 680600
for: Flute [oboe/violin], harp
Item no.: 199021
for bass clarinet
for: Bass clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 635717
for: 3 soloists (SABar), mixed choir (SATB), children's choir, orchestra
Conductor score
Item no.: 287315
Lyric book
Item no.: 199241
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 363288
for: Oboe
Music score
Item no.: 302753
for: Clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 159359
for: Voice (baritone), chamber ensemble
Study score
Item no.: 331747
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 198718
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Piano reduction
Item no.: 216968
for: Klarinette und Streichtrio
Score, Parts
Item no.: 277096
for: Clarinet
Item no.: 353635
for: Cello
Item no.: 179786
Music score, CD
Item no.: 446543
for: Piano
Item no.: 352232
for: Flexible ensemble (5 parts), piano (school orchestra)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 290066
for: 2 cellos
Score, Parts
Item no.: 665148
Aus: Trois Chansons Bretonnes
for: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1080635
Gegenwartsmusik
for: 2 flutes (duet)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 922481
The four versions for solo guitar
for: Guitar
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 663519
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 745331
für Flöte und Akkordeon
for: Flute, accordion
2 Performance scores
Item no.: 674640
for: Organ
Item no.: 372440
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 334970
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 350772
for: 4 flutes (quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 304156
for tuba and piano
for: Tuba, piano
Score, part
Item no.: 637108
Freie Orgelstücke für den gottesdienstlichen Gebrauch
for: Organ
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 175863
Gegenwartsmusik
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 922750
für Klavier
Leon Fleisher gewidmet
for: Piano
Piano score
Item no.: 380814
für Solostimme
for: Voice
Songbook
Item no.: 382232
für Viola solo
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 660266
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 584761
for: Symphonic orchestra
Item no.: 381963
for marimba solo, violin, cello, flute, horn and bassoon
for: Marimba, chamber ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 664501
for: Organ
Item no.: 274334
Sudien und Übungen
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 326454
for: Descant recorder [tenor recorder]
Music score
Item no.: 465035
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 208672
Six pieces for string quartet
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 1652281
für Violine und Klavier
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 661848
for: Percussion
Music score
Item no.: 771208
for: Trombone
Score
Item no.: 266901