Ab minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 5

The line climbs and stays. Eight notes ascending in a waltz — Animé, mp, legato, in three — the phrase rising from Ab2 to B6 without descent, each step carrying the étude further into the upper register. The melody ends suspended at B6, light yellow-green, the minor third at its highest and palest. Two warm accents — yellow-orange at A3, red-orange at G4 — pass through the middle of the ascent.

The brightest étude in the series. Three Eb notes carry the fifth across three octaves, but at this altitude the blue-violet has lightened to pale gray and silver. The warm accents are brief visitors in an otherwise cool climb.

The waltz rhythm lifts the phrase rather than grounding it. Where the descending Variation 3 settled into darkness, this one rises into light and leaves the phrase hanging — an open question at the top of the keyboard.