Tritone (D, G#) - Reflexions 17

The only Lent in the tritone series, and the only descent. Four notes — D2, C4, C5, G#6 — played Lent, mp, legato, in three, the phrase opening at G#6 and falling to D2: a slow waltz downward, meditative, the line sinking from light violet at the top to near-black in the bass. A red accent at C4 and C5 adds warmth outside the tritone — two notes that don't belong to the D/G# interval.

The canvas splits between cool and warm hemispheres. Light violet at G#6 opens the painting in pale blue; the red accents at C4 and C5 glow at mid-register, visitors from a warmer world; then the phrase falls into the dark orange-black of D2 at the bottom. The widest leap in the étude — from G#6 to D2 — leaves a vast empty space between the tritone's two poles.

Slow where everything else has been animated. The tritone descending into silence, the waltz rhythm carrying the phrase from light into the weight of the bass.