Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude) -- chord progression along the Arpeggio (in the first 4 bars)

Question

Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude)

I am curious to know whether there is a logical reason for the "chord progression" of the Arpeggio for Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude).

At the naive level, I can see that there are series of

• Majora 3rd (here denoted as "3" in red as 3 semitones in between the root [left-hand] and the third [right-hand lowest note])

and

• minor 3rd (here denoted as "2" in red as 2 semitones in between the root [left-hand] and the third [right-hand lowest note]).

Are there good logic behind it? Or Something else to look at?

EDIT Rephrased Question: What I am interested in knowing, maybe rephrased as this, "was why there are some minor 3rd (actually two minor 3rd; denoted as two of RED color 2) along the way of each Major 3rd's chromatic scale (those denoted as RED color 3) up?"

A chromatic scale all the way up through Major 3rd creates some interesting tensions for the music. Similarly for the chromatic scale all the way up through minor 3rd. But what is the purpose for this particular mixed use?

Answer 1

The logic stems from the "horizontal" (melodic) progression rather than the vertical (chords) one.

Consider the voices in this way:

Top

This is a melodic, diatonic sequence: ascending fifth, descending second, descending second.

Middle and Bottom

This is an ascending chromatic scale in thirds: G - EG# - FA - F#A# - GB - G#B - AC - (A)C# - BbD - BD# - CE

In this way, it's a "contrapuntal" passage of three voices.

However, the top voice is a diatonic sequence; whereas, the lower voices are chromatic. Thus, the intervals between the upper and lower voices are not always the same.