Extended piano: a cluster in the theory and practice of composition by Henry Cowell

The article is devoted to the theoretical concept of the cluster proposed by the American The article is devoted to the theoretical concept of the cluster proposed by the American composer Henry Cowell. The composer’s work and his theoretical contribution to the development of second avant-garde music has been underestimated in Russian musicology for many years. This article proposes to make a radical reassessment of the theoretical role of “New Musical Resources” in the development of new music and theoretical thought. The proposed research frame is the extended piano, in which the cluster is the starting point of innovation in the field of modern piano technique. The fundamental elements of the cluster theory described by Cowell in his theoretical work “New Musical Resources”, begun in 1918–1919, published in 1930, are considered. One of the closest positions, in relation to working with sound and its complex representation, is the theory of the “Unified Time Field” by Stockhausen. Within its framework, the composer traces a close relationship between the overtone series and rhythmic proportions. In Cowell’s concept, the cluster is a continuation of the overtone series and supports the idea of a complex understanding of sound. These starting points also become the basis of Stockhausen’s theoretical thought. The article analyzes the process of expanding the timbre palette of the piano and the coloristic functions of the cluster in various modes of this phenomenon. The conclusion contains conclusions that the theory of the cluster, which served as the basis for many discoveries in the theory of composition of the twentieth century, offers a number of innovations. It opens a discourse in the psychoacoustic field around the categories of noise and sound, which combines the psychological and physiological characteristics of sound perception; creates the basis for an integral approach to the theory of new music, accumulating its fundamental concepts on the overtone series model.

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