Eb Minor - Research on Harmony - Variations 8

The closing study, and the most violet. Variation 8 carries three Bb's at octaves 3, 4, and 5 alongside two Gb's at octaves 6 and 7, the fifth and the third both climbing into the upper registers. Six notes from Eb1 to Gb7, Animé, mf, legato, waltz. No non-chord tones at all — a pure triad, like Variations 3 and 4, but at a stronger dynamic.

Eb1 anchors the phrase in near-black. The three Bb's build violet through the midrange — muted at Bb3, gaining saturation at Bb4, full at Bb5. Both violet and green shift toward red-violet as the registers rise: Gb6 carries the green third with a red-violet cast, and Gb7 dissolves into a pale red-violet at the extreme top. The typical green of the minor third takes on an unusual warmth here, leaning toward violet's neighbor rather than staying cool.

The final waltz in the cycle closes where it began: a pure chord, no accents, the triad ascending from darkness to light. But the red-violet cast at the top gives the ending a subtly different color — the green third blushing toward violet as the series draws to a close.