pieces with tone clusters

[pies]

Please tell me about your favorite pieces with (extensive) use of tone clusters. I love the sound of them.

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

They are exciting pieces. Some Bartok comes to mind and also I have seen one piece by some composer whose name I don't remember who used big note clusters in one key and the melody in another key.

[jre58591]

ornstein's danse sauvage is one of my favorites. also, rautavaara does a good job with them. his 1st piano concerto uses clusters on the white keys to bring out the first theme and at the end of the 2nd movement there are a ton of tone clusters that bring in the 3rd movement.

[thalbergmad]

What in the name of Hades is a tone cluster.

Please enlighten me.

Thanks

Thal

[kapellemeister]

Check out Charles Ives' Concord Sonata and some of his song accompaniments. At some point he indicates to the pianist to use a 12" ruler to play a mass of white keys.

Thal - a tone cluster is a chord made of non-chord tones as well as chord tones. It can be chromatic (c, c#, d, d#, e) or just white keys (playing with your palm). I once used a cluster from Db to Ab (palm and fingers to get as many as I could) in an arrangement of Battle Hymn of the Republic for pipe organ. Played low on the keyboard, it sounded like a distant bass drum. Ives describes a similar technique in his book Memos for using the piano to fill in missing drum parts in his father's community band. And that was back in the late 1800s!

Lynn

[thalbergmad]

Thanks for that, i had never heard of them before.

Battle Hymn of the Republic on an organ sounds great.

Thal

[melengi]

Schnittke, 5 aphorisms for piano

[jre58591]

Check out Charles Ives' Concord Sonata and some of his song accompaniments. At some point he indicates to the pianist to use a 12" ruler to play a mass of white keys.

it was actually mostly a mass of black keys. there is only one point where white keys are struck.

[pianote]

check out ginastera's danzas criollas...i think 1 or 2 of the movements have tone clusters

[jre58591]

a ton of ginastera's pieces have tone clusters, especially the later ones.

another good example is corigliano's etude fantasy, mostly in the 4th part.

[amanfang]

I enjoy Henry Cowell's pieces.  I played "Exultation" as an opener to a recital several years ago.  There was a quiet gasp from the audience as I started.  They thought I was passing out or something and falling on the keys.   

He has many pieces with tone clusters. 

[lostinidlewonder]

Frederic Rzewski's Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues is pretty cool, you use you entire arm to make the clusters

[steve_m]

a

[desordre]

Is it true that he was the first to use them regularly?

Not only this: he was the very first composer to use them, in the work The Tides of Manaunaun, written in 1912. Another astonishing use of clusters is Tiger.
 To anyone who is interested in Cowell music or avant-garde procedures of early 20th century music, I would refer to his book New Musical Resources.
 Best wishes!

[jre58591]

technically, native american indians and traditional japanese songs were the first to use tone clusters, particularly on cadences.

[mike_lang]

Not only this: he was the very first composer to use them, in the work The Tides of Manaunaun, written in 1912. Another astonishing use of clusters is Tiger.
 To anyone who is interested in Cowell music or avant-garde procedures of early 20th century music, I would refer to his book New Musical Resources.
 Best wishes!

Have you heard the Harp of Life?  I just performed it in my music theory class, and really liked it - although, the eighth note forearm clusters at the climax are difficult to pull off well.

[prometheus]

Of course Opus Clavicembalisticum!

 

[Etude]

True    

Some pieces that haven't been mentioned:

Finnissy - English Country Tunes (particularly mvts 1,5, and 8 ), Piano Concerto no. 4
Flynn - Trinity
Sorabji's TE no. 22 has some clusters at the end
Ligeti - Desordre, L'escalier du diable, Atmospheres (not piano)
Penderecki - A lot of the early orchestral pieces use microtonal clusters (eg. Symphony no. 1, Threnody)
Xenakis - Evryali
Messiaen - Some pieces from 'Vingt Regards' such as 'Noel'

[invictious]

Any od my compositions will include osme tone clusters.

Try some Prokofiev or Scriabin for milder tone clusters.

[Etude]

Verdi Transcription no. 11 by Michael Finnissy uses clusters constantly in the high range of the keyboard.  The music is suprisingly clear and coherent, perhaps due to the relatively lower dynamics, compared to other pieces which use clusters for powerful or violent effects, as well as a complete lack of bass clusters, which most cluster pieces usually have to an extent.