Tone Clusters

A tone cluster, or chord cluster, is a group of 3 or more notes separated by half-steps, whole-steps, or occasionally one-and-one-half-steps... i.e. Minor 2nds (1 semitone), Major 2nds (2 semitones), and Augmented 2nds (3 semitones). Examples would be [C, C#, D, D#] or [C, D, E, F#]. To form a tone cluster, consecutive notes from a chromatic scale (a scale containing all 12 semitones in order), a diatonic scale (major or minor scale), or occasionally a pentatonic scale (this is when augmented 2nds come into play), are played simultaneously. While a a chord cluster obviously contains a great amount of dissonance, since minor- and major-2nds are the 2 most dissonant intervals, the cluster also has a recognizable quality present in it--just like a regular, consonant chord or interval.

Additionally, when the first and last note of the cluster are spaced a consonant interval apart (like a perfect 4th), the cluster tends to be more agreeable to the human ear. This further deepens the 'mystery' of why chord clusters, despite overwhelming dissonance, have various distinct qualities and have varying degrees of agreeableness. Why is it that humans find these clashing notes agreeable and harmonious?

The research that I have done so far suggests 2 things about our appreciation of music:

a) There are musical principles that we innately find appealing. Certain scales, chords, etc. just naturally sound good to us. This is evidenced by the fact that certain scales and chords have been dominant in music since melodic music's conception several thousand years ago.

and

b) There are musical principles which seem to have appeal to us only because we are used to it. It is an established cultural aspect which we have been exposed to since birth and we now accept it as being "Okay" and often times even find it appealing. This is evidenced by the fact that infants, who have not yet been heavily exposed to our musical culture, very strongly prefer consonance over dissonance, and yet we find vast amounts of dissonance (even though it is almost always resolved to consonance, with the exception of experimental avant-garde music) in basically all modern music around the world.

We may find it interesting, then, that these tone clusters are a very recent addition to music. The first published song which utilized chord clusters was Heinrich Biber's "Battalia a 10" in 1673, but for the next 250 years, tone clusters would virtually disappear from music only appearing a handful of times and never more than once or twice in an entire piece. In the early 1900's and 1910's chord clusters had a resurgence and became heavily present in jazz and ragtime styles of music. Since then, avant-garde composers have been using them extensively in many different styles of music, from jazz to classical to neo-folk. At first tone clusters were rejected as being unharmonious, however over the decades they have become much more accepted. It would seem, then, that these clusters have only developed and become accepted because of cultural influence--as they become more predominant in music, we have become more accepting of them--however, what, then, inspired musicians to utilize them in music in the first place, and why can we appreciate the qualities that each have? There seems to be a mix of both innate and acquired taste in this.

Over the next few days I plan on investigating various aspects of these chord clusters such as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier Tartini tones that are produced and how these tones may affect the cluster or if these tones match up the "regular" chords which share the same qualities.