Ab minor - Research on Harmony

Nine notes played Animé, mf, legato, in four — forward motion, the volume clear and present. The Ab minor triad runs from Eb2 to B7, nearly six octaves of chord, the line dipping to Eb2 before returning: a valley, an inward gesture, the phrase reaching down into the bass before climbing back. A red-violet accent at F3 is the only tension outside the chord.

Ab minor is an entirely cool key: blue for the root, blue-violet for the fifth, yellow-green for the minor third. The canvas moves from dark violet at the bottom to near-white at the top, the warm side of the spectrum absent except for that single red-violet accent glowing in the lower middle register.

The opening étude, the series in its most complete form. Each variation that follows will thin the chord, shift the balance, or alter the tempo — but this first statement holds everything, the cool palette declared before anything else begins.