C Major9 - Research on Harmony - Variation 2

The first waltz in the series, and the first descent. Four notes — C2, D4, D5, E5 — the sparsest étude in the collection. Played Lent, mp, legato, in three, the phrase opening at E5 and falling to C2. No fifth, no seventh, no root below C2 — just the root, ninth, and third, the chord barely sketched.

Yellow at E5 opens the canvas in light — the third at its most characteristic. Orange at D5 and D4 carries the ninth through two registers, the warm hue prominent at mid-canvas. The root at C2 resolves into dark gray at the bottom. The palette is minimal: yellow, orange, dark gray, and the spaces between them.

The most economical statement in the series — four notes, a waltz descending from light into shadow, the major ninth reduced to its barest outline. Yellow falling through orange into near-black.