TRILLIUM CLUSTER

The trillium cluster has several groups of interconnected strings. Each group consists of three string-segments joined at the center in a three-pointed star pattern. When sounded by plucking and modulated with a slide, they produce gong-like tones. The sounds are sometimes tonally ambiguous, often bizarre; sometimes beautiful. The process of tuning each cluster is important. It’s almost impossible to tune prescriptively; the best approach is simply to fool around with the tuning of the several clusters, keeping an open mind and ear, until you’ve worked your way to a coherent set of tonal relationships you can then explore in performance.