What is this chord (B-E-A-D#-F#)?

Question

We have the successive notes : B-E-A-D#-F#

I know that it is not B11. I have no idea of the name.

Answer 1

The order of the notes in a chord rarely affect its name. B D# F# make B major. Adding A (b7) makes it dominant 7th. The E is the 4th, which could be a sus 4 but since there is the maj 3 (D#) that can't be sus. E becomes the 11th. but since there is no 9th (C#) it must be B7 add 11.

Answer 2

It's is a B11. First off, exact voicing do not matter for naming the chord. The bass note is the only thing that affects the naming. Extend chords in general imply the lower extensions, but are not required in the chord. In a similar vein of thought, the 5th in general in any chord can be implied so 4 sets of notes can represent a B11 and they are as follows:

B11 (All notes): B-D♯-F♯-A-C♯-E

X:1
L:1/1
K:C
M:None
V:1 clef=treble
"B11"[B, ^D ^F A ^C' E']

B11 (Omitted 9th): B-D♯-F♯-A-E

X:1
L:1/1
K:C
M:None
V:1 clef=treble
"B11"[B, ^D ^F A E']

B11 (Omitted 5th): B-D♯-A-C♯-E

X:1
L:1/1
K:C
M:None
V:1 clef=treble
"B11"[B, ^D A ^C' E']

B11 (Omitted 5th & 9th): B-D♯-A-E

X:1
L:1/1
K:C
M:None
V:1 clef=treble
"B11"[B, ^D A E']

Answer 3

B probably isn't the root of this chord, because it would be very dissonant and very bad for voice leading for a chord with the root of B to contain both a D# and an E. You would end up with the (silly but nonetheless correct) chord named B7susAdd10.

When you've got a collection of notes like this, you are not really looking at a chord per se, but rather a voicing of a chord. Chord voicings don't necessarily have to contain every note of the chord, just the ones that the composer/performer considers pertinent for the occasion. As you can imagine, that means there's a lot of flexibility and room for interpretation about what the chord actually is, since the root doesn't have to be at the bottom, the inversion doesn't really have to make much sense outside of the context that it's used, and the chord could be missing notes that would otherwise make it much easier to spell!

Nonetheless, I have some theories about what this chord might be.

My first guess (and the answer that I'd say is most likely) is F#Mi13/B. This collection of notes contains every note key to this chord; it's only missing the fifth, which is a common candidate for removal in chord voicings that contain the root. This is a particularly likely candidate if the next chord is B7 or F7, but it wouldn't necessarily be either of those.

Due to the nature of the question, it's also possible that it's something different. It could be a rather unusual voicing of EMiMaj9 or a somewhat less unusual voicing for AMaj7#11. It's also possible that the connection to a triad is only incidental and that this chord that mostly consists of stacked fourths derives its properties from those stacked fourths. The point is that if you find F#Mi13/B to be an insufficient answer then no specific answer anyone here gives you is going to be particularly good and you need to investigate the context that the chord lies in and use that to spell it; because we don't have that we can only give you a best guess answer.