The song is journey. Corinne May sang it, and so did Angela Zhang (chinese singer)
the version i have is Angela Zhang's though...
The whole piece is in Bflat major.
Its verse is repeated several times, using Chords I and iv(64), and can sometimes be felt as “quite a boring song” with little variations. Subsequently towards the middle, the melody changes thus bringing new materials of notes and rhythmic patterns, catching the attention of the listener.
Initially I thought the verse would be an antecedent and consequent phrase structure over 8 bars. But after looking into it more carefully and also at the further bars, I think it’s more like a sentence structure, S-S-L through 16 bars.
I shall skip the first part where the verses keep repeating and will show a part which moves towards the bridge. starting from bar 21.
Red – antecedent and consequent phrases, consisting of 2 bars each
Blue – short-short-long phrases, consisting of 4 bars for short and 8 bars for long.
The short phrase consists of antecedent and consequent phrases which make up a period. And the second short phrase repeats the melody changing it a little by using rests to form rhythmic changes which feel like some kind of syncopation.
The first part of the long phrase surprisingly has similar chord progressions as the short phrases, I and iv, however, the melody is changed and we can distinctively hear the difference. The second part goes back to melodic and rhythmic materials used in the previous phrases, but ends with a perfect cadence.
I’ve added the bridge in also (sounds like the bridge to me… not sure if it is though, but I’m quite sure it’s not a chorus.)
This portion of the piece is played around F major, D major, to F major and back to Bflat major (home key).
Phrase structure would be short (F major: 2 bars) –short (D major: 2 bars) –long (F major to Bflat major: 5 bars)
The notes coloured pink are used for chromatic modulation, consisting of Eflat – E - Fsharp from F major to Bflat major. I can’t figure out what the chord for bar 43 is.
bars 41-43 sounds like pre dominant chords to me although the chords are V7-I-vi. Please help me decipher! I’d be taking it as predominant.
For the accompaniment of this piece it’s mostly alberti bass or broken chords, but there are instances where neighbour notes are used. This makes the broken chords sound more glued together, and not far apart.
It’s interesting to note that the long notes are on the words "long, long journey", like really emphasizing that this life is a LONG-LONG journey.
