Ab Major 9 - Research on Harmony - Variation 2

Eight notes gathered close — Ab1 to C5, barely four octaves — the chord compressed into the lower half of the keyboard. Played Animé, mp, legato, in three — a waltz ascending from Ab1 to C5, the phrase climbing but never reaching the upper registers. Bb2, G3, Bb3, Eb4, G4: the ninth, seventh, ninth again, fifth, seventh again, all clustered within two octaves in the lower-middle. The third at C5 is the climax — red, the highest note, the phrase suspended there.

Blue-black anchors the bottom at Ab1 and Ab2. Red-orange and violet layer through the middle, the seventh and ninth sitting close together in their most saturated hues. Blue-violet at Eb4 cools the fifth. Red at C5 caps the canvas, the third as the brightest point in a painting that stays low and dense.

The most compressed variation — the chord folded into a narrow register band, the waltz climbing only as far as the middle of the keyboard. Darkness below, warmth concentrated at the center, a brief red crest.