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: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 380527
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 881822
for: Ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1591965
for: Double bass, string orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1555558
for: Marimba
Ensemble score
Item no.: 381789
für Streichquartett (Technik) (Technique)
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 381433
for: EHorn, FAG
Ensemble score
Item no.: 380762
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 494136
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 482939
for: Harp
Music score
Item no.: 382475
for: 6 voices (SMezATBarB), chamber orchestra
Conductor score
Item no.: 382208
for: Gemischter Chor Horn, Tuba, Violine, Violoncello, Kontrabass PERC CEL
Score
Item no.: 382010
for: 4 trumpets
Set of parts
Item no.: 157821
for: Voice (medium), piano
Item no.: 380847
for: Singstimme (Bar), E-Gitarre, E-Bass, Klavier PERC
Score
Item no.: 381285
for: Descant recorder
Book
Item no.: 341774
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 240791
for: Clarinet, Violin and Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 321527
for: Male choir (TTBB), piano
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 913349
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 965240
for: Chamber ensemble
Score, Parts
Item no.: 617155
Buch
Item no.: 881406
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 880712
for: Voice
Buch
Item no.: 880679
for: Voice
Buch
Item no.: 880118
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 879627
Buch
Item no.: 879347
for: bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano
Music score
Item no.: 879309
for: Choir
Choir score
Item no.: 878008
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 133768
for: Alt-Saxophon, Bariton-Saxophon und Klavier
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1356545
for: Concert band
Sheet music
Item no.: 1314486
for: Flute, piano
Item no.: 297040
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 673602
for: Voice (high), 2 violins, viola, cello
Study score
Item no.: 649813
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 486076
for: Stimme und Klavier (oder Orchester)
Item no.: 616156
for: 2 pianos
Item no.: 141253
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score (Hardcover)
Item no.: 101766
for: Guitar
Item no.: 371584
for: Percussion, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 658323
for: Trumpet
Music score
Item no.: 240518