Someday My Prince Will Come Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis | Niels Dalgaard
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Someday My Prince Will Come
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Frank Churchill · 1937 · B♭ major · ABAC, 32 bars

Someday My Prince Will Come — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

The dominant of vi resolves somewhere else — onto IV — and the next dominant, G7, gives the resolution the first one withheld, landing on C minor before a plain ii–V. In three, with a whole bar for every chord, every one of those resolutions can be heard.

ii-V-I Secondary dominants

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

Bbmaj7 | D7 | Ebmaj7 | G7 | Cm7 | G7 | Cm7 | F7

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The Jazz Roadmap Lite

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Play Someday My Prince Will Come in JamShed

The whole form, not just these bars: JamShed’s trio — double bass, drums and piano — plays it with you at the tempo and in the key you choose. Loop the bars that trip you up, mute the instrument you play, share the link.

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Harmonic analysis

Key
B♭ major
Tonal center
Bb
Confidence
Medium
Chords analysed
8
ChordRoman numeralFunctionWhat it is doingConfidence
Bbmaj7ITonicBbmaj7 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.High
D7V7/viDominantD7 is functioning as V7/vi: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at vi instead.Low
Ebmaj7IVPredominantEbmaj7 is the IV chord of Bb: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.High
G7V7/iiDominantG7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.High
Cm7iiPredominantCm7 is the ii chord of Bb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.High
G7V7/iiDominantG7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.High
Cm7iiPredominantCm7 is the ii chord of Bb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.High
F7V7DominantF7 is the dominant of Bb. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7Cm7 - F7

A ii-V pointing at Bb, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

half cadenceF7

The progression stops on the dominant of Bb — a half cadence. It is unfinished on purpose.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

The complete analysis of Someday My Prince Will Come — every chord of the whole form, with its Roman numeral and its ii–V–Is marked on the chart — is in JamShed with the Practice Pass, ready to print. Open it in JamShed →

Why this example matters

Read in B♭ major, these bars come out as I – V7/vi – IV – V7/ii – ii – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a ii-V that is left unresolved and at least one secondary dominant. The shortest way in is a two-voice reduction: third and seventh only, slowly. D7 contributes Gb and C, and where that pair resolves is the whole story of the passage. You will meet the same move again in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology, transposed and at a different pace.

How the rest of Someday My Prince Will Come goes

Thirty-two bars in three-four, ABAC. The A section is the excerpt — a deceptive resolution of the dominant of vi onto IV, then a straight path back through ii–Vs. The second half adds a passing diminished chord and an inverted tonic over F before the final ii–V. In three, each chord gets a whole bar, which slows the harmonic rhythm and makes the tune unusually spacious to improvise over.

Someday My Prince Will Come on record

Frank Churchill and Larry Morey wrote it for Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Dave Brubeck brought it into jazz on Dave Digs Disney (1957); Bill Evans recorded it on Portrait in Jazz (1959), and Miles Davis made it the title track of a 1961 album.

Analyze this progression

The excerpt is loaded and editable. Swap a chord for its tritone substitute, delete the preparation, borrow one from the parallel minor, and watch which numerals change and which do not.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Related

ii-V-I

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

Read →

Secondary dominants

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

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Stella by Starlight

Victor Young · 1944 · B♭ major

Chord progression →

How High the Moon

Morgan Lewis · 1940 · G major

Chord progression →

Ornithology

Charlie Parker · 1946 · G major

Chord progression →

Jazz chord progressions

The families every standard is assembled from, with examples from the library.

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