Db Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 14

The loudest and the highest-climbing. Variation 10 is mf — the only forte dynamic in the series — and ascends in triple time from Db1 in the sub-bass to F6 at the summit. Eight notes, Animé, legato, a waltz that pushes forward with more energy than anything else in the Db Major set. The ascending contour carries the phrase steadily upward without pause.

Blue-green toward black fills the low end where Db1 sinks into near-darkness. In the upper register, red-violet leans toward red at F5, and blue deepens toward blue-violet at Ab4 and Ab5. The fifth appears twice in adjacent octaves, stacking blue upon blue. Orange and red-orange accents at D3 and G5 flash warmly through the cool field — the non-chord tones adding heat to the climb.

This is the étude that raises its voice. Where the rest of the series speaks softly — p, mp — Variation 10 opens up to mf, the triple-time ascent gathering force as it rises from the lowest depths to the brightest heights.