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
Score
Item no.: 382192
for: Voice (soprano), bass clarinet
Music score
Item no.: 627936
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 176446
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 113280
for: für Gitarre
Item no.: 113076
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Item no.: 342671
For Organ
for: Organ
Solostimme
Item no.: 1626501
for piano solo
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 482936
for: Flute Duo
Buch
Item no.: 389706
for: Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 349010
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 330940
for: Voice (medium), piano
Item no.: 120477
for: Piano 4 hands
Score
Item no.: 667771
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 661982
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Music score
Item no.: 474647
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 276041
for: Soprano, SATB
Choir score
Item no.: 321888
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 346638
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Study score
Item no.: 272643
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 108868
for: Piano 4 hands
Score, parts, audio file (pdf/mp3 download)
Item no.: 5517
op. 95
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 357247
Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters
for: Guitar
Music score
Item no.: 1317193
for: Viola, piano
Piano reduction, solo part
Item no.: 678525
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 128222
for one recorder player using Tenor recorder and Voice
for: Tenor recorder
Music score
Item no.: 350016
for: 2 bassoons
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 184113
for: Tuba In C or Tenor Horn B-Flat and Piano
Book
Item no.: 267106
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 412763
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 616503
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 344454
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 107210
for: Trumpet, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 100883
for two Violins
Music for the Twiolins - New Recital Pieces for 2 Violins
for: 2 violins
Ensemble score, solo parts
Item no.: 674485
for: Cello, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 619646
for: String Ensemble, Timbales, Organ
Score
Item no.: 176619
for: Women's choir (SSA) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 170193
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 145929
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Item no.: 381550
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 281579
for: für Bläserquintett
Set of parts
Item no.: 312302
for: Piano
Item no.: 471284
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 279895
for: Piano, Trumpet and Strings
Score
Item no.: 863417
for: Oboe, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 296675
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 213885