Thou Swell by Richard Rodgers

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 20 · 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

• F9 – B♭7 (×3)
  II9 – V7
• F9 – B♭13 – B♭aug7 – E♭maj7 – Fm7
  II9 – V13 – V+7 – Imaj7 – ii7
• E♭maj7 – A♭maj7 (×2)
  Imaj7 – IVmaj7

B Section

• E♭/G – G♭dim – B♭7/F – C7/E – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭ – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭ – G7 – Cm7 – F7 – B♭7
  I⁶ – biii° – V⁴₃ – VI⁶₅ – ii7 – V7 – I – v7 – I7 – IV – III7 – vi7 – II7 – V7

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

C Section

• E♭/G – G♭dim – B♭7/F – C7/E – Fm7 – B♭7 – D♭7♭5 – C7 – F7 – B♭7 – E♭
  I⁶ – biii° – V⁴₃ – VI⁶₅ – ii7 – V7 – bVII7♭5 – VI7 – II7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭aug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• F9 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.
• C7/E acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm7.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm7.
• F7 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.

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.