F# Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 8

The third takes command. A#5, A#6, A#7 — three ascending octaves of violet — rise through the upper register, the third given its most sustained presence in the series. Below them, F#5 holds the green root at full saturation, and further down, F#2, F#3, F#4 stack the root in graduated darkness. Eight notes in all, ascending in waltz time, Animé and mp.

The violet shifts as it climbs: warm and reddish at A#5, leaning toward red-violet, then paling through A#6 into the near-white of A#7. The root's green progresses in the opposite direction — dark and muted at F#2, warming through middle octaves, reaching its clearest expression at F#5. No fifth appears. The canvas is a dialogue between green and violet, the two defining colors of F# Major.

C#5 is absent, and the étude doesn't miss it. This variation proves that the character of F# Major lives in its root and third — green and violet in near-equal balance, cool throughout, the fifth an optional guest.