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: Voice
Choir score
Item no.: 1174245
From the Ogre
for: Brass band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1144113
St. Louis Fanfare
for: Brass ensemble (5 parts)
Score
Item no.: 1690214
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Study score
Item no.: 1542470
nach rumänischen Volksliedern
for: school orchestra
Einzelstimme Sopranblockflöte
Item no.: 795515
(Offenbarung 3, 14-21), Motette
for: gemischter Chor (SSAT/ATBB)
Choir score (Choir 2)
Item no.: 791060
Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 1541768
Partitur
Score
Item no.: 1622336
11 Danze per violino e pianoforte (1996)
for: Violin, piano
Score
Item no.: 1018778
for: Trumpet and String Ensemble
Score
Item no.: 819157
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1008698
for: Piano 4 hands
Music score
Item no.: 1136452
Al Maestro Morricone
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 920897
for: Violin, piano
Score, part
Item no.: 659564
for: Accordion
Item no.: 211898
for orchestra
for: Orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 212173
for: Accordion
Item no.: 213272
for: Accordion
Item no.: 213266
for: Organ
Item no.: 488880
for: Piano
Score
Item no.: 488674
for: Accordion
Set of parts
Item no.: 210529
for: Diatonic accordion
Item no.: 210518
for: Piano
Item no.: 246620
for: Voice
Item no.: 209117
Trio Nr.2
for: KLAR (FL) VC KLAV (CEMB)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 207968
für Gitarre und Streichquartett
for: 2 violins, viola, cello, guitar
Score
Item no.: 216689
for: Violin
Item no.: 216455
ein Buch zur Praemoderne
Konferenzschrift Köln 1991
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 241517
Aulós
for: Trumpet
Item no.: 229464
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 277033
for: Soloists, mixed choir, orchestra
Lyric book
Item no.: 275237
for: Accordion
Item no.: 273389
for: Accordion
Item no.: 273377
for: Accordion
Item no.: 273350
for: Children's choir
Choir score
Item no.: 244873
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219456
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219995
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219984
for: Accordion orchestra
Score
Item no.: 219941
for: AKK 2A
Item no.: 219799
for: Accordion orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 219798
Klassik
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 633539