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: Oboe, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 833388
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 833341
for: Children's choir, piano; recorders, school instruments ad lib.
Score
Item no.: 113952
for: Schlagzeug, Streicher
Score
Item no.: 429804
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 647128
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 648519
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 840231
for: Oboe
Item no.: 285879
for: Clarinet, piano
Item no.: 284958
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 285642
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Item no.: 285269
for: Voice
Buch
Item no.: 840937
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 273529
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 256068
for: Horn, orchestra
Book
Item no.: 553020
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 985025
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 866811
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1624968
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 204024
for: Mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 274639
for: Tuba
Music score
Item no.: 295069
for: Cello
Score
Item no.: 1548449
for: Guitar [lute]
Music score
Item no.: 274780
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219661
for: Accordion
Item no.: 213370
for: Accordion
Item no.: 184186
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score, Parts
Item no.: 365203
for: Violinen (2), Viola, Cello, Klarinette
Set of parts
Item no.: 881979
for: 5 recorders (quintet)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 115932
for: Organ [4H]
Book
Item no.: 245556
for: Alto saxophone, piano
Item no.: 881385
for: Voice, piano
Vokalpartitur
Item no.: 1626626
for: Piano
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1626780
for: Violin
Solostimme
Item no.: 1618930
for: Trumpet
Score
Item no.: 921641
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 885826
for: Organ, Strings and Percussion
Score
Item no.: 818624
for: Solfege
Book
Item no.: 1178098
for: Voice
Book
Item no.: 1178334
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 819874
for: Violin
Music score
Item no.: 240945
for: Ondes martenot, drums, strings
Single part ondes martenot
Item no.: 630191
for: Soprano or Tenor Voice and Piano
Score
Item no.: 266638
for: Suspended Cymbals
Score
Item no.: 313815
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 239372