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 (SATB), the parish, organ
Choir score (for the parish)
Item no.: 155274
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386890
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386888
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386891
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386889
Children's Choir, Clarinet, Horn & Percussion
for: Children's choir, instruments
Score
Item no.: 1042884
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386068
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386066
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386064
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386065
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 241754
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Item no.: 210648
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 209114
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 165817
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Item no.: 146930
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386945
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386886
Choir part Tenor 1
Item no.: 386789
Single part Bass instrument 1
Item no.: 386787
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386088
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386041
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Item no.: 160012
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 125409
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386631
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386038
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386844
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 387359
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386630
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386090
Single part 2
Item no.: 386788
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386884
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386665
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Item no.: 386477
for: Choir
Choir part Tenor
Item no.: 386091
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 183264
for: Male choir
Choir score
Item no.: 211432
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Item no.: 205152
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386943
for: ALT BASS
Item no.: 386843
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 191285
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386629
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 141920
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 173415
for: Voice (alto)
Item no.: 386662
for: Choir
Choir part Soprano
Item no.: 386040
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 190091
for: Male choir (TTBB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 210888