Watermark by Enya

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 7

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). This page shows that transcription 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• Fadd9
  Iadd9

Part 2 (0:06)

• Am – Fadd9 – Am – B♭add9 – E♭ – Fadd9
  iii – Iadd9 – iii – IVadd9 – bVII – Iadd9

Part 3 (0:31)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:06).

Part 4 (0:56)

• Dm – Am – E♭ – F – Dm – Am – E♭ – D♭ – C
  vi – iii – bVII – I – vi – iii – bVII – bVI – V

Part 5 (1:19)

• Fadd9 – Am (×2)
  Iadd9 – iii
• B♭add9 – E♭ – E♭/C – Fadd9
  IVadd9 – bVII – bVII (bass C) – Iadd9

Part 6 (1:43)

• Am – Fadd9 – Am – B♭add9 – E♭ – E♭/C – Fadd9
  iii – Iadd9 – iii – IVadd9 – bVII – bVII (bass C) – Iadd9

Part 7 (2:07)

• C – Fadd9 – F
  V – Iadd9 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• E♭/C (bVII (bass C)) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Watermark), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Watermark), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.