C# Major - Research on Harmony - Variation 1

The only descent. Variation 1 opens at C#2 and falls through eight notes to F7 — but the fall is deceptive, because the final pitch leaps to the extreme upper register where F7, the enharmonic E#, dissolves into near-white. Modéré, mf, legato, triple time: the loudest and slowest étude in the series, the waltz given more weight and deliberation than the Animé studies around it.

Red-violet commands the middle of the canvas. F3 and F4 — the major third in two registers — give this variation the warmest interior of the four, the cool blue-green of the root yielding ground to its warmer neighbor. Blue appears at G#3, a single entry of the fifth adding a violet-tinged depth. The bass is dark blue-green; the treble fades to white at the seventh octave.

Among four études built on a cool key, this one leans warmest — the red-violet third given room to breathe, the descending contour settling into its richest colors before the final pitch escapes upward into silence.