F Major - Research on Harmony - Variation 4

The first descent, the shortest span. Variation 4 is the series' first descending étude — the phrase opens at A5 (yellow-orange) and falls through four notes to F1 (near-black) in the bass. The span is F1 to A5: four and a half octaves, the shortest range among the series' études, the étude staying in the middle-to-low register rather than reaching for the silver extreme.

Four notes, Lent, waltz meter: A5, C4, C3, F1. Two versions of C — the fifth — in the middle, providing orange-red color through the midrange, before the line arrives at the dark root. The descent is clean and unhurried, the waltz meter giving it a gentle swaying quality.

Shadow, midtone, and highlight balance nearly equally here. The étude neither reaches very high (no A7, no A6) nor sinks to extreme sub-bass — it sits in the middle ground of the F Major range, the descent modest and direct.