OT: the first tone cluster?

[Roland Flessner]

Apologies because this is way off topic, but Baroque music is a high proportion of my listening these days, and I can't resist passing along this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efpG0Ut5STc

In his representation of Chaos, Jean-Féry Rebel may have used the first tone cluster in the history of Western music. He uses all seven notes of the D-minor scale simultaneously. Remarkable for 1737.

[erikwilson7]

This is fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing. This is certainly the earliest example of a cluster chord I've heard.

I love finding early examples of "extreme" dissonances in music. Some of us here may know of Carlo Gesualdo, and his madrigals always amaze me. He was creating harmonic dissonances in the late 1500s that would have inspired Schoenberg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dVPu71D8VI

[barryguerrero]

Roland, David Hurwitz pointed out the Rebel to me decades ago. I was shocked but mildly pleased.