B Minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 3

B0 sits at the edge of audibility — the lowest B on the keyboard, more felt than heard. Variation 3 begins there, in deep black, and rises through the whole range of the chord in a waltz: eight notes climbing from B0 to D6, Animé, ascending.

The palette starts dark and travels continuously upward toward light — B as yellow-green-toward-black in the low register, moving through midtones as the waltz rises, arriving at D6 as light orange at the crest. No descent, no fold-back. The étude climbs and stays climbed, the final note suspended at the top.

Highlights account for more than a third of the canvas, shadows for less than a sixth — the weight is upper-register, the mood resolving upward. The waltz meter pulls the ascent forward in three, each beat a step in a continuous staircase from the deepest possible register to the bright upper range.