Secondary Dominants-Example 2

A second example of a piece with secondary dominants is the popular tune When I Fall in Love (written by Victor Young and Edward Heyman in 1952). An audio of the song can be found here: First recording by Jeri Southern with Victor Young and his orchestra.

When I fall in Love (m. 1-4)

If we look carefully at the beginning of this piece, we notice that the same progression, Ebmaj7-C7-F-7-Bb7, happens twice in the first four measures.

First, provide roman numerals for all the chords that are in the key. Doing so will leave only the C7 chord as one that is not diatonic in the key of Eb.

Since this C7 chord is a major-minor 7th chord, it will sound like a V7 or dominant seventh chord.

To see if it acts like a V7, look to where it resolves. If C7 is a V7, the C (the root) will resolve down a fifth to F.

The C7 does go to an F-7 chord next. So the chord acts like a secondary dominant.

Since the C7 sounds like a V7 and acts like a V7, it should be analyzed as a secondary dominant – a V7/Y – where Y would be ii since F is ii of Eb.

Therefore, the full analysis of these measures will look like:

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