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.
1. Streichquartett
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Ensemble score
Item no.: 424110
for: Clarinet (a), 2 violins, viola, cello
Set of parts
Item no.: 424322
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 485261
for: Piano
Score
Item no.: 647368
for: 3 BFL (TTB)
Score
Item no.: 161018
for: Cello, harp
Item no.: 286217
for: BAR-SAX KB
Score
Item no.: 225115
for: Voice (medium), piano
Item no.: 395512
for: Accordion
Item no.: 273472
No. 4 from "Fantasy Preludes"
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 791576
Gegenwartsmusik
for: Chamber ensemble
CD
Item no.: 1194227
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 888479
for: Percussion, piano
Item no.: 476026
Plainte sur la perte de la réflexion musicale
Fassung für Posaune von Andrew Digby
for: Trombone
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1639997
mit CD-Audio
for: Alt-Saxophon, Tonband
Ensemble score
Item no.: 1639970
for: 2 Holzbläser (Flöten, Alt-Blockflöten oder Flöte und Oboe) und Streichorchester
Solostimme Flöte I
Item no.: 758608
Set of parts
Item no.: 1174273
Pour Deux Violons, Alto & Violoncelle
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score
Item no.: 876355
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 920905
for: 12 Voices and 2 Accordions
Score
Item no.: 920878
Harmonia-Womens Choir
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 905272
Gegenwartsmusik
for: Chamber orchestra
Set of parts
Item no.: 1540366
for: 4 saxophones (SATBar)
Score, Set of parts
Item no.: 686757
for: Harp, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 380403
for: Symphonic orchestra
Score
Item no.: 380118
for: FCH (SSA) (+ STR)
Item no.: 387992
for: Harpsichord, strings
Score
Item no.: 385726
Choir part Alto
Item no.: 387289
Choir part Tenor 1
Item no.: 385986
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386944
Choir part Bass
Item no.: 386663
für Klavier und Orchester
for: Piano, orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 382466
for: Blockflötenquartett
Set of parts
Item no.: 1118043
Dialogue
for: Violin, orchestra
Single part (Violin solo)
Item no.: 315581
for: Accordion and Orchestra
Buch
Item no.: 325476
for: Alto, Soprano, Bass Voice, Tenor
Buch
Item no.: 1174738
4 Scores
for: Bass Clarinet, Cello, Percussion, Electronics
Score
Item no.: 1174716
An Entertainment - für Singstimme und Klavier
for: Narrator, piano
[englisch]
Item no.: 190131
Pour Violon & Alto
for: Violine und Viola
Score
Item no.: 921353
from the musical Daens
for: Fanfare
Score
Item no.: 1000849
for: Mixed Chamber Quartet
Buch
Item no.: 1583092
Il mistero di San Sebastiano
for: VL KLAR VC
Score, Parts
Item no.: 207218