Ab Major 9 - Research on Harmony - Variation 6

Eight notes climbing from Ab2 to C7 — the waltz ascending, Animé, mp, legato, in three. The lower register gathers tight: Ab2, Bb2, G3, Bb3 — root, ninth, seventh, ninth again, four notes within two octaves. Then a leap — nothing between Bb3 and Eb5 — before the upper register opens with Eb5, G5, Bb5, the fifth, seventh, and ninth clustering high. C7 crowns the phrase in silver.

The canvas divides into two zones. Below: dark blue and violet, heavy, the root and ninth compressed into near-black. Above: blue-violet at Eb5, warm red-orange at G5, muted violet at Bb5 — the chord's colors at their most characteristic, saturated and clear. Silver at C7 dissolves the top. A gap of silence separates the two zones, the painting breathing between its dark foundation and its luminous upper half.

A study in contrast — the chord split between a dark, dense bass and a bright, scattered treble, the waltz leaping across the divide.