Ab minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 3

The only waltz in the series, and the only descent. Where every other variation moves Animé in four, this one steps back to Modéré, 72, in triple time — the pulse shifting from a walking four to a quieter, measured three. The melody opens at B6, light yellow-green near the top, and falls the length of the keyboard to Ab1. Ten notes, legato, mp, the root appearing four times as the line descends.

Three warm accents pass through the middle of the phrase — red-orange at G3, yellow-orange at A3, red at C4 — brief visitors in the cool descent. The blue of the root recurs through the registers, the tonal center insisted upon from floor to ceiling.

The only variation where the line moves in a single direction — opening in light and resolving into darkness, the étude finding its end in the near-black of the lowest register.