E Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 10

Four steps before the climb. Variation 10 begins with E1, E2, E3, E4 — four repetitions of the root, one per octave, ascending in sequence like a ladder being placed. Only after this four-step preparation does the phrase break free into G#4, G#5, B5, and then G#7, the extreme high note of the entire E Major series.

G#7 is the highest point any E Major étude reaches — a pale blue-green at the very top of the keyboard's range. Triple time again; the waltz carries the phrase upward with the same gentle momentum. The ascending shape here is particularly deliberate: the root-stacking in the bass gives the eventual climb a sense of gathered energy released.

Animé, mp, legato. No non-chord tones — pure E Major from bottom to top. The repeated E's establish the key's gravity before the ascent abandons it.