Eb minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 2

Four Eb's in a row. Variation 2 stacks the root from Eb1 to Eb4 — four consecutive octaves of blue-violet — before the phrase reaches A4 and Bb4, then leaps to Gb7. Seven notes, Animé, mp, legato, waltz. The root dominates the lower and middle registers, the chord's identity stated through sheer repetition of its lowest tone.

From Eb1's near-black to Eb4's gray blue-violet, the four roots build a monochrome column of cool darkness. A4 introduces a single yellow-orange accent — the lone warm note — before Bb4 restores violet. At the top, Gb7 opens into near-white, the green third so high it has lost its color entirely. The painting reads as a tower of dark blue-violet capped by a pale whisper of green.

The most root-heavy étude in the cycle, the blue-violet insistent and unrelenting through the bass and midrange. The single yellow-orange accent at A4 is a brief warm moment in an otherwise monochromatic study.