A Minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 5

A clean waltz descent. Variation 5 descends from C6 (light red, the minor third) to A1 through six notes, no chromatic accents, no non-chord tones — only A, C, and E in various registers. The phrase opens at C6 and falls through the chord's colors: red to red-orange, warm yellow-orange of A, yellow of E.

The descent is complete and unhurried: C6, E5, A5, A4, C4, A1. The series' two fundamental pitch-classes alternate down the phrase — C and A, the red of the minor third and the yellow-orange of the root. Midtones dominate at 57%; shadow and highlight balance on either side.

Lent, mp, legato, waltz. Variation 5 is one of the series' cleanest études — six notes, pure chord, a smooth three-beat fall from the high red third to the near-black root. No tension, no chromatic interruption: the minor triad in direct descent.