Ab Minor - Research on Harmony - Variations 15

The closing étude, and as dense as the opening — nine notes across six octaves. Ab1, Eb2, Ab2, Eb3, C4, D4, Ab4, B4, B6: root and fifth alternating through the low registers before two warm accents — red at C4, orange at D4 — arrive in the middle and the minor third closes at B4 and B6 above. Played Animé, mp, in four, the articulation natural rather than legato — each note standing apart with its own weight.

The canvas is half in darkness, the bass region heavy with the near-black of Ab1 and the dark violet of Eb2. The phrase is more punctuated than the flowing legato of most of the series, the notes separated rather than drawn into one another.

Ab minor ends as it began: dense, cool, the full chord present, the warm accents embedded in the middle of an otherwise blue and violet architecture. The valley shape one final time, the phrase dipping into the deep bass before returning.