Was studying a vocal arrangement to get how its harmony works, felt like I was following, then—bam! Are there good frameworks for understanding tone clusters like these? Like: why every diatonic *except* G# on the first cluster? Should we see the second as an elaborate V of ii?
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I would think of the "damn" chord as mostly an Esus chord, so what some would call a suspended dominant. It's very common to go from IV to susV by holding notes over from the IV chord. That's not exactly what happens here (we get three extra voices), but it's similar
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The absent G# is THE feature of an Esus chord. G# has such a special role as the lead tone. But for like 100 years now, composers have basically been saying "fuck it, suspended dominant or just dominant I don't care anymore, dominant is dominant"
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But I think the main story here is color not function. We've just got loads of seconds smashed together. It's quite beautiful dissonance. I bet that's what guided the composer more than anything.
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This really makes sense—my favorite answer so far! Thanks for living up to your bio. :D
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You're welcome! Don't quote me on that 100 years figure, I think it's probably actually longer, but history is not my strong point hehe