F Major 9 - Research on Harmony

A small piano étude translated into color. The F Major 9 major ninth chord — F2, F4, G4, F5, G5, A6 — appears here as red-violet toward black, yellow-orange toward red-orange, red, yellow and red-orange toward orange, the harmonic-chromatic translation of this chord. From F2 to A6, the étude breathes across the full keyboard.

Played Lent — slowly, meditatively, mp — at a gentle, conversational volume, legato — the notes flowing into one another. Rising from F2 (black) to A6 (light yellow-orange) at the crest, the line folds back — an arch, a breath held and released. Arnaud wrote it in four, the pulse walks with a steady, even tread.

This painting belongs to my Harmonic Crossing series, an ongoing practice of translating harmonic relationships into visual form. Each variation is a study — direct, unadorned, focused on the essential character of the chord.