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: 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 2 bassoons (sextet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 419743
Saxophoniar 38
for: Alto saxophone, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 291861
for: Wind ensemble
Item no.: 161000
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 160128
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 182700
for: Viola
Item no.: 143520
for: Oboe
Item no.: 472761
for: 2 trumpets
Item no.: 457488
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 162755
for: Trumpet, piano
Item no.: 433665
for: 2 recorders (SA)
Item no.: 158322
for: Percussion
Item no.: 220004
Item no.: 219659
für doppelchörige Blechbläser
for: 4 trumpets, 4 trombones; timpani ad lib.
Score (C), Parts
Item no.: 186499
Piano reduction
Item no.: 429692
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Item no.: 131051
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 132927
for: GES-H (T) ORG
Organ reduction
Item no.: 133583
Interpretationen, Quellentexte, Komponistenmonographien
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 408818
Item no.: 558846
for: GES-M (MEZZ) GIT
Item no.: 302352
Buch
Item no.: 252634
Version für Flöte und Violoncello
for: Flute, cello
Score, ensemble scores
Item no.: 367912
Item no.: 610465
for: 4 trumpets
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 336715
Original Version
Buch
Item no.: 1173949
for: Guitar, piano
Buch
Item no.: 1141576
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 279899
En Jouant A Pousse
for: Viola, piano
Buch
Item no.: 278657
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Item no.: 584691
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Item no.: 584689
Piano reduction
Item no.: 584682
for: Mixed choir (SATB), organ
Choir score
Item no.: 953036
Book
Item no.: 274247
for: Male choir
Vocal score
Item no.: 468501
for: 2 BFL (SA) SCHLAGW GIT
Ensemble score
Item no.: 244373
Sudien und Übungen
for: Euphonium
Music score
Item no.: 474719
for: Accordion
Item no.: 265854
Klassik
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 269728
for: Violin
Item no.: 460080
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 490692