Ol' Man River by Jerome Kern

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 18 · Sections: 8

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → 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 1

• E♭ – Cm
  I – vi
• E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• E♭ – Cm – B♭7 – Fmaj7 – B♭9 – E♭ – A♭6 – E♭
  I – vi – V7 – IImaj7 – V9 – I – IV6 – I

B Section 1

• Cm – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – Cm – E♭/G – G♭dim7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – Fm7 – B♭9 – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – D7
  vi – I – IV – I – vi – I⁶ – biii°7 – ii7 – V7 – ii7 – V9 – I – IV – I – VII7

C Section 1

• Gm – D7 (×2)
  iii – VII7
• Gm6 – Cdim7 – Gm – D7 – Gm – Cm6
  iii6 – vi°7 – iii – VII7 – iii – vi6
• Gm – Cdim7 (×2)
  iii – vi°7
• Gm – Fm7 – B♭7
  iii – ii7 – V7

D Section 1

• E♭ – Cm – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭9 – Cm – F7 – E♭ – Cm – Fm9 – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭m – E♭ – B♭7
  I – vi – I – IV – I – V9 – vi – II7 – I – vi – ii9 – V7 – I – iv – I – V7

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 2

Same chords as B Section 1.

C Section 2

Same chords as C Section 1.

D Section 2

• E♭ – Cm – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭9 – Cm – F7 – E♭ – Cm – Fm9 – B♭7 – E♭
  I – vi – I – IV – I – V9 – vi – II7 – I – vi – ii9 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Gm.

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.