tone cluster

American  

noun

Music.

1. a group of adjacent notes played on a keyboard instrument typically with the fist, forearm, or elbow, similar groupings also occurring in orchestral music.

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tone cluster British  

noun

1. music a group of adjacent notes played simultaneously, either in an orchestral score or, on the piano, by depressing a whole set of adjacent keys

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Example Sentences

In “Let There Be Light,” Mr. Williams instead writes a swelling tone cluster of dissonant strings and wordless vocals, building an eerie tension that bursts and immediately recedes to a thick haze of high violins.

From New York Times • Sep. 10, 2019

But a dense tone cluster of brass and Hammond organ interrupts this repose, and the music devolves into a buzzing, asynchronous mass.

From New York Times • Mar. 9, 2018

A "tone cluster" is a group of adjacent notes played simultaneously.

From Time Magazine Archive