A Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 8

The densest ascending waltz. Variation 8 carries nine notes — the most of any étude in the series — ascending from A2 to C#7 in triple time. The span is five octaves; the phrase is packed with pitches: A2, A3, C#4, D#4, C#5, E5, A5, C#6, C#7.

D#4 appears as a blue-violet accent — a chromatic tension just a half-step above C#4, the chord's third. Its cool blue-violet color sits inside an otherwise warm phrase, briefly darkening the texture before the line continues its ascent. C#7 at the top is silver — the near-white of the extreme high register.

Animé, mp, legato, triple time. Highlights overwhelm at 79% — the massive upper-register presence of multiple C#'s and A5 in the high range. Among the ascending études, Variation 8 is the most fully populated — every octave inhabited, the waltz stepping through nine pitches to arrive at the silver peak.