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: Bass flute, audio tape
Ensemble score
Item no.: 492607
for: 2 pianos
Ensemble score
Item no.: 381992
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 379742
for: Quartet
Score
Item no.: 470260
for: Double bass
Score
Item no.: 334329
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 259771
for: Harp or Harps
Score
Item no.: 259704
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 281807
for: Children's choir (1 voice), piano
Score
Item no.: 579640
for: Violoncello, ELEKTRONIK
Score
Item no.: 382211
for: Children's Choir [SA] and String Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 375545
of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber for Orchestra (1943)
for: Orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 740128
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 688682
for: 2 solo voices (SBar), women's choir, orchestra
Score (spiral binding)
Item no.: 666958
for: Voice (bass), piano
Music score
Item no.: 146814
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 240848
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Book
Item no.: 411866
for: 2 Violins and Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 613261
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 875295
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 636301
for: Soprano SATB
Book
Item no.: 322023
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 425889
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 581756
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 381832
for: String orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 585401
for: Soloists, mixed choir (SATB), narrator, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 571585
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 618163
for: Koloratur-Sopran und Klavier
Item no.: 166051
for: Voices, narrator, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 351854
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Piano score
Item no.: 326785
for: Voice (medium), piano
Music score
Item no.: 897693
for: Classical guitar
Music score
Item no.: 318021
for: Tuba
Item no.: 353540
for: Cello, organ
Music score
Item no.: 661832
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 140962
from the cycle «Poética del laberinto»
for: 4 saxophones (SATBar)
Set of parts
Item no.: 694021
for: Cello, piano
Score
Item no.: 619136
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 484901
for: 2 pianos
Piano reduction
Item no.: 108807
for: Tuba In C or Tenor Horn B-Flat and Piano
Book
Item no.: 267165
for: Tuba In C or Tenor Horn B-Flat and Piano
Book
Item no.: 267065
for: Percussion ensemble
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1340563
for: Marimba
Item no.: 338538
for: Mixed choir (SATB divisi), piano; bass, percussion (alto saxophone, 2 trumpets) ad lib.
Choir score
Item no.: 655317
for: Clarinet
Item no.: 106965
for: Trumpet
Music score
Item no.: 683492
Sonata for Bayan Solo
for: Accordion (bayan)
Music score
Item no.: 658982
for: Clarinet (B-flat), piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 668692