Manhattan by Richard Rodgers

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 19 · Sections: 4

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

• F – F/A – A♭dim – Gm7 – C7 – Fmaj7 – B♭6 – Am7 – A♭dim7 – C7/G – F♯dim7 – C7/G – Caug7 – F – D7 – Gm7 – C7
  I – I⁶ – biii° – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – IV6 – iii7 – biii°7 – V⁴₃ – #i°7 – V⁴₃ – V+7 – I – VI7 – ii7 – V7

B Section

• F – F/A – A♭dim7 – Gm7 – C7 – Fmaj7 – Dm7 – G7 – Gm7 – C7 – C7♭9
  I – I⁶ – biii°7 – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – vi7 – II7 – ii7 – V7 – V7b9

C Section

• F – D7 – Gm7 – C7 – F – B♭6 – Am7 – A♭dim7 – C7/G – F♯dim7 – C7/G – C7 – Am7♭5 – D7♭9
  I – VI7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV6 – iii7 – biii°7 – V⁴₃ – #i°7 – V⁴₃ – V7 – iiiø7 – VI7b9

D Section

• Gm7 – E♭9 – F – Dm7 – G7 – F – F/A – A♭dim – Gm7 – C7 – F – A♭dim
  ii7 – bVII9 – I – vi7 – II7 – I – I⁶ – biii° – ii7 – V7 – I – biii°
• Gm7 – C7 (×2)
  ii7 – V7
• F
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Caug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• C7♭9 (V7b9) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• E♭9 (bVII9) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Gm7.

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.