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: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 832759
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 146249
for: Vocal, Piano and String Quartet
Score
Item no.: 858585
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 857482
for: String Quartet and Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 863173
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 690065
for: String orchestra
Score
Item no.: 688149
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 688147
Messe für zwei Orgeln
komponiert für den Dom zu Salzburg
for: 2 organs (4 hands)
2 Performance scores
Item no.: 1665129
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Book
Item no.: 871889
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 878812
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 870671
for: Voice
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 910516
for: Women's choir (SSAA), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 886948
for: Saxophone
Music score
Item no.: 906373
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Book
Item no.: 870375
for: Oboe
Score
Item no.: 210709
for: Guitar
Score
Item no.: 643389
for: 4 Blockflöten, Gitarre, Schlagzeug, Streichquartett und Streichorchester
Score
Item no.: 281795
for: für Streichorchester
Score
Item no.: 272255
for: Clarinet, cello
Score
Item no.: 271022
for: Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 270646
for: Soprano, Alto and Instrumental Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 270173
for: Treble recorder
Score
Item no.: 279158
for: Concert band
Score
Item no.: 1148412
for: Opera
Score
Item no.: 834435
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Score
Item no.: 228972
33 Choralvorspiele durch das Kirchenjahr von zeitgenössischen Komponistinnen
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 1340795
for: Piano 4 hands
Item no.: 380886
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Set of parts
Item no.: 379770
for: 5 brass winds
Score
Item no.: 103061
for: Choir
Choir score
Item no.: 920358
for: Piano 6 hands
Score
Item no.: 207298
for: Salon orchestra
Score
Item no.: 205912
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 205728
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 203872
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 260022
for: Choir and Percussion
Score
Item no.: 209888
for: Mixed Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 1548565
Score
Item no.: 1548517
for: Orchestra and Piano
Score
Item no.: 1548000
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1548237
for: String Quartet and Piano
Score
Item no.: 1548039
for: Quartet
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1547949