A Major - Research on Harmony - Variations 10

Valley to the extreme high. Variation 10 traces an inverted bell — dipping to A2 before rising — but the phrase reaches all the way to C#7, the silver extreme that only the densest ascending études normally achieve. Seven notes from A2 to C#7: the valley shape claiming the full span.

A2 here translates to blue — the claim notes A2 appears as dark blue, an unusual chromesthetic rendering of the root. The valley dips into this dark blue before rising through the familiar yellow-orange and blue-green of A Major, arriving at C#7 silver.

Animé, mp, legato, four beats. Highlights and midtones share the balance at nearly equal weight. What Variation 10 offers is the valley shape at maximum span — the same wide reach as the ascending études, but with the initial dip that the ascending shape doesn't take. The series' last étude, and one of its most expansive.