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: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 633641
for: Singstimme und Streichquartett
Score, Parts
Item no.: 444864
for: Flöte, Oboe, Violine, Klavier
Score, Parts
Item no.: 426157
for: Sopran und Alt-Blockflöte
Ensemble score
Item no.: 420965
Symphonic fresco on Genesis 1:1-31
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 683411
Transcription for string sextet
for: 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos (sextet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 680953
for: Flute, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 680100
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 672634
for: Vokalensemble (4 Singstimmen CtTTB) und 3 Bratschen
Sing- und Spielpartitur
Item no.: 497680
for: Organ
Item no.: 494462
for: Voice (tenor), piano
Item no.: 493560
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 490517
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 490509
for: Viola (solo und mit Klavier)
Item no.: 471805
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 462773
for: Bass
Single edition
Item no.: 444935
for: 8 (16, 24, 32, ..) Piccoli und 4 Basler Trommeln (mit 8 Trillerpfeifen)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 444894
for: Violin, viola, cello, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 486483
for: Klarinette in B (Violine) und Orgel
Item no.: 486077
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 486076
for: Tenor (Sopran), Posaune (Violoncello) und Orgel
Item no.: 483823
for: String Orchestra and opt.Violin or Viola and Piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 935669
for strings and percussion groups
for: Streicher und Schlagzeuggruppen
Study score
Item no.: 1638923
Version for viola solo
for: Viola
Single edition
Item no.: 1629025
for: Organ
Item no.: 1582638
Cello Library
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 1652165
for: 2 guitars
Ensemble score
Item no.: 393893
for: Mixed choir (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 630209
for: GCH (6-8)
Score
Item no.: 486137
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 481856
for: Voice (soprano/mezzo-soprano), piano
Score
Item no.: 479090
for: tiefe Frauenstimme und Streichquartett
Score
Item no.: 427963
for: Clarinet
Score
Item no.: 424268
for: Bariton solo und Klavier
Score
Item no.: 493243
for: 2 GES (SBAR) FL VA BASS-KLAR POS KB
Score
Item no.: 492070
for: Mixed choir (SABar) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 422646
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 478190
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 477689
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 476717
for: für Streichquartett
Score
Item no.: 476263
for: Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 462964
for: 8 Blechbläser
Score
Item no.: 456809
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 471349
for: Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 470275
for: Voice (low), organ
Score
Item no.: 467931
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet); narrator ad lib.
Score
Item no.: 689551
for: Trumpet, trombone, cello, percussion, piano
Score
Item no.: 688150
for: Voice, guitar
Score
Item no.: 688067