D Major9 - Research on Harmony - Variation 8

Eight notes from F#6 to D1 — a near-twin of the opening étude. D1, D2, D3, E3, D4, A4, A5, F#6. The same notes, the same descending waltz, Lent, mp, legato, in three. The ninth E sits low at E3, close to the root's third octave. The phrase falls from light yellow-orange at F#6 to near-black at D1.

Green opens the canvas at F#6, the third's hue shifting toward blue-green in this register. Yellow-orange at A5 and A4 carries the fifth. Yellow at E3 sits low, the ninth's brightness muted by register — olive rather than vivid. Four octaves of orange fill the lower half, darkening from earth to gray to black. The painting mirrors the opening: warm earth below, brief green above.

A return to the first statement — the same chord, the same descent, the same pattern of green giving way to orange giving way to darkness. The series repeating its own opening gesture.