A Minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 3

Two blue-violet accents near each other. Variation 3 carries D#3 and E3 as chromatic tensions in the lower register — D# (blue-violet) and E (yellow), the fifth, appearing close together within the phrase. E3 is a chord tone; D#3 is not. The two pitches sit a half-step apart, and their blue-violet and yellow colors sit in contrast within the otherwise warm red-and-yellow-orange phrase.

Eight notes, bell shape from A1 to C6, Lent, mp. The arch is similar to the opening étude in span and structure, but the interior includes this pair of lower-register chromatic neighbors. Shadow and highlight weigh nearly equally here, with midtones in the middle.

The D#3 (blue-violet) is the same accent type that appeared in Variation 1, but now placed closer to an E3 (chord tone, yellow) — the juxtaposition of the two adjacent pitches, one chord and one outside, one warm and one cool, giving the étude's lower register a more complex texture.