F Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 10

The descent from silver. Variation 10 is the only descending étude in the series to open from A7 — the silver extreme at the top of the keyboard. Seven notes fall from this pale peak to F2 in the bass: A7, A6, C5, A5, A4, C3, F2. The phrase begins in near-white and ends in near-black, the full span traversed in descent.

The opening pitch is silver — A7, where color thins almost to absence. From there the line descends through pale yellow-orange (A6), then orange-red (C5), then A4 and A3 in warmer registers, then C3 (dark red-orange), then F2 (near-black). A descent through the full warmth spectrum from pale to dark.

Lent, mp, waltz. Midtones hold the balance; shadow and highlight nearly equal weight. Variation 10 covers the same F2-to-A7 span as the full-span bell études, but traversed in the opposite direction — descending rather than arching — beginning where the arches peak and ending where they begin.