D Major9 - Research on Harmony - Variation 1

Seven notes arching from D2 to F#7 — one of only two études in the series that rises. Played Lent, mp, legato, in four — walking pulse rather than waltz, the rhythm steadier, more grounded. The root D fills three consecutive octaves — D2, D3, D4 — before the fifth A enters at A4 and A5, and the third F# arrives at F#6 and F#7, green fading to silver at the keyboard's edge. No ninth, no seventh — the chord is pure triad with the third placed high.

Orange darkens through the bass — black at D2, gray at D3, warm earth at D4. Yellow-orange at A4 and A5 carries the fifth through the middle. Then the palette shifts: green at F#6, the third's characteristic hue at last, and silver at F#7 where the green bleaches to near-white. The painting reads as a long orange gradient reaching toward green at the top.

The only arch in four — the walking pulse giving weight to the phrase where the waltzes float. The root climbs through orange, touches the green of the third, and returns.