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.
Score
Item no.: 1542779
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1542578
for: Violin, viola, cello (string trio)
Buch
Item no.: 1542562
Study score
Item no.: 1542554
for: Mezzosopran und Ensemble, Partitur
Score
Item no.: 1542498
for: Accordion
Study score
Item no.: 1542496
for: Sopran, Sopransaxophon, Posaune, grosses Orchester, Partitur
Score
Item no.: 1542422
for: Chamber ensemble
Set of parts
Item no.: 1542409
for: 7 Instruments
Study score
Item no.: 1542389
for: Musiktheater fuer drei Stimmen und Ensemble, Studienpartitur A4 quer
Study score
Item no.: 1542367
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 601632
for: Flute, Viola and Harp
Partitur-Set
Item no.: 492548
for: Organ 4 Hands
Buch
Item no.: 492448
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 270639
for: Symphonic orchestra
Buch
Item no.: 257869
for: Mand, Gitarre, Harfe [alle dritteltönig], Set mit 3 Spielpartituren
Set of parts
Item no.: 1542832
for: Symphonic orchestra
Study score
Item no.: 1542772
for: Libretto
Lyrics
Item no.: 1542511
for: Guitar and Piano
Book
Item no.: 977493
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Music score
Item no.: 1103649
for: Flute
Music score
Item no.: 1352619
Viola 1 (orchestral part)
Item no.: 372986
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 778472
for: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon (wind quintet)
Score
Item no.: 778447
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 833294
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 833290
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 833262
for: Chamber ensemble
Score
Item no.: 833254
for: Mixed Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 833208
for: Chamber orchestra
Score
Item no.: 833152
for: Musette
Buch
Item no.: 833028
for: Baritone, Choir and Orchestra
Score
Item no.: 833019
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1582983
for: Mixed Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 832985
for: 2 Violins, Viola and Cimbalon
Score
Item no.: 832878
for: Mixed ensemble
Score
Item no.: 832825
for: Mixed Choir a Cappella
Score
Item no.: 832789
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 832752
for: Strings
Score
Item no.: 832617
for: Cello
Music score
Item no.: 832362
for: Viola
Score
Item no.: 391016
for: Bass clarinet
Score
Item no.: 390711