Indian Summer by Victor Herbert

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 11 · 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

• C – G7 (×2)
  I – V7
• C – Dm7
  I – ii7

B Section

• G7 – E7 – Am – D7 – G7
  V7 – III7 – vi – II7 – V7

A Section 2

• C – G7 (×2)
  I – V7
• C – F – Dm
  I – IV – ii

C Section

• C – E7 – Am – Fm – B♭ – A♭7 – C – G7 – C
  I – III7 – vi – iv – bVII – bVI7 – I – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• B♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• E7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Am.
• D7 acts as V/V: it resolves to G7.

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.