Db Minor - Research on Harmony - Variations 9

The widest span in the series — Db1 to E7, nearly the full keyboard. Nine notes trace a valley in four, Animé, mp, legato, the phrase dipping into the sub-bass before climbing to the highest third in the series. The midtones dominate: E3 and E4 carry the third as dark yellow and gray in the lower-middle register, Ab4 holds the fifth in vivid blue, and Db5 restores the root in blue-green. A single orange accent at D5 warms the center. E6 and E7 dissolve into pale yellow and near-white at the very top.

The canvas is a study in middle tones — a large field of muted color between two thin margins of dark and light. The sub-bass roots provide a sliver of black at the base, the upper thirds a sliver of silver at the top, but between them the painting fills with gray-yellow, blue, and blue-green in quiet coexistence.

A phrase that reaches for both extremes of the keyboard but lives in the middle — the chord's color at its most understated.