Db Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 15

Eight notes, Animé, and the root appears three times — Db2, Db3, Db5 — blue-green threading through the full span of the étude. The inverted bell dips from the opening down to the low register, then climbs to F6 at the pale peak. In the middle, D4 and B4 stand as non-chord accents: orange and yellow-green, warm colors that interrupt the triad.

Blue-green toward gray anchors the bass, softer than the deep black of earlier variations. In the midrange, red-violet leans toward yellow where D4 bends the third's color, an unusual tint. Blue leans toward blue-violet at Ab3 and Ab4, the fifth quietly present in both registers. The painting's center is divided between cool triad tones and the warm accents nestled among them.

Variation 9 threads the root through three octaves — low, middle, high — giving the blue-green a vertical presence that holds the painting together. The root is the spine; everything else hangs from it.