Who coined the term 'tone cluster' and in which decade?

• A. Schoenberg in the 1920s
• B. Henry Cowell in the 1920s
• C. Stravinsky in the 1930s
• D. Debussy in the 1900s

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is who gave the name to a specific type of sonority and when that naming started. Henry Cowell is credited with coining the term tone cluster in the 1920s, as he and other modernists were exploring dense, dissonant sonorities built from adjacent pitches played together on the piano. This naming helped musicians discuss and study these closely spaced tones as a distinct musical resource, separate from traditional scales or chords. While other composers contributed in different ways to 20th-century music—Schoenberg with serial techniques, Stravinsky with rhythm and neoclassicism, Debussy with impressionistic color—the term itself is tied to Cowell and the 1920s.