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: Mandolin orchestra
Score
Item no.: 490791
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Score
Item no.: 1106062
for: Piano and Chamber Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 865810
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 310925
for: Voice
Score
Item no.: 140254
for: Accordion, Violin, Cello and Piano Chamber
Score, Parts
Item no.: 861855
for: Violin, chamber orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 934916
for: Treble recorder
Buch
Item no.: 264877
for: Piano
Sheet music, audio file
Item no.: 4108
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1001583
for: Voice (high), piano
Music score
Item no.: 858147
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 621239
(Oversize)
for: Symphonic orchestra
Conductor score
Item no.: 413934
for: Voice (baritone), piano
Book
Item no.: 268023
for: Oboe
Music score
Item no.: 207117
for: Cello, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1346469
Edition Schott
for: Orgel und Sprecher
Music score
Item no.: 737019
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 553136
for: Clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 370052
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 120632
Study for Violin Alone – Revised New Edition 2021
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 797652
for: Voice
Music score
Item no.: 278533
Sonata for violin and violoncello
for: Violin, cello
Ensemble score
Item no.: 178947
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 342370
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 227320
for: Voice (soprano), violin
Music score
Item no.: 492844
for: Flute, harp
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 859102
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 362110
for flute solo
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 153996
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 180239
for: Cello, orchestra
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 351518
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 134708
for flute and electronics
for: Flute, electronics
Music score
Item no.: 490312
for: 3 Equal C or Bb Intruments
Score, Parts
Item no.: 315953
for: Violin, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 638194
for: Oboe Violin Viola Cello
Book
Item no.: 900182
for: Voice (soprano), instruments
Score
Item no.: 620531
for: Viola, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 108875
for: Treble recorder, guitar
Item no.: 309083
Piano Duet
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 675605
for: 3 soloists (SABar), mixed choir (SATB), children's choir, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 392558
12 Microludes for String Quartet
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 184660
for: Bass clarinet, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 336402
for: Flute
Item no.: 124058
for: Mezzosopran und Orchester
Studienpartitur
Item no.: 608412