A Kiss in the Dark by Victor Herbert

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → A Section → C Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

A Section 1

• Em – A♭7 – Dm6 – D♭dim – G7 – Dm6 – G♭dim – C – Em7 – C – Am
  iii – bVI7 – ii6 – bii° – V7 – ii6 – bv° – I – iii7 – I – vi

B Section

• C – Dm7 – Dm6 – G7 – Gaug – C/E – D♭dim – G7
  I – ii7 – ii6 – V7 – V+ – I⁶ – bii° – V7

A Section 2

• C/E – A♭7/E♭ – Dm6 – D♭dim – G7 – Dm6 – G♭dim – C – Em7 – C – D7/A
  I⁶ – bVI⁴₃ – ii6 – bii° – V7 – ii6 – bv° – I – iii7 – I – II⁴₃

C Section

• Am7 – C/G – Dm7 – G7 – C
  vi7 – I⁶₄ – ii7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gaug (V+) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.