A Harmonic Analysis of “In Our Town”
The song starts out in E♭ major. I'm just gonna go through the progression:
Intro: E♭, B♭/D, E♭, A♭, E♭, B♭/F. All diatonic major chords, ends on the dominant to lead into the first verse. Standard stuff for any march. Verse 1: E♭, G/D, E♭, G/D, Cmin, B♭, E♭, G/D, Cmin, B♭. The G chord is not diatonic to the key of E♭, which is a little unsettling when it follows with E♭, the tonic. But the next two times that G chord is played, it goes to a C-minor chord, which means it's acting as a secondary dominant, something very common in marches. So the first time that G chord comes up, it sounds like something's up, but the next two times, it feels okay, so you start second-guessing yourself. Maybe everything is okay after all. It parallels the ponies' reactions when they visit the town. Chorus 1: A♭, E♭, B♭, E♭, A♭, E♭/G, B♭/D, E♭, G/B, E♭, G/B. The main part of the chorus is as diatonic as you can get, using just the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords. Everything sounds peachy. But the very last measure has that G chord in it again, both times it goes to E♭, the tonic, rather than C-minor. So now we know something is up. Verse 2: Same as Verse 1 Chorus 2: Same as Chorus 1 Transition: C. This measure is acting as a way to smoothly transition from the key of E♭ to F. Dominant chords want to go to tonic chords, and the C chord is the dominant chord in the key of F. Moving the key up by a half-step or in this case, a whole step, is super common in musicals as a way to ramp up the energy of a song. Verse 3: F, A/E, F, B♭min, C, F, A/E, Dmin, C. Oh-so-close to just being a transposed version of the other two verses, but there's one very important chord change. That B♭min makes this verse much darker than the last two. Diatonically in the key of F, you would expect to see a B♭ major chord, but the fact that it's a minor chord messes with your brain. There's definitely something wrong with these ponies. Chorus 3: B♭, F, C, F, B♭, F, C, F, A♭, F, B♭. Almost just a transposed version of the other two choruses, but this time, in the last measure, the A♭ major and B♭ major chords act as the subdominant and dominant chords for the new key, which smoothly transitions us back into E♭ major for the bridge. Not much musical trickery going on in the harmony, but the lyrics have the most unsettling line in the entire song here: "You can't have a nightmare if you never dream." Bridge (part 1): E♭, Gmin/D, Cmin, A♭min, E♭/G, E♭, Gmin/D, Cmin, F/A, B♭. It's a typical descending bass line chord progression, but once again there's a single chord that throws a wrench into things. This time it's the A♭min chord, acting in the exact same way as the B♭min chord did in Verse 3. It turns the expected diatonic IV major chord from the key into a minor chord, which makes it much darker. Bridge (part 2): D♭, F, B♭/D, E♭, Gmin, E♭, C. This section is used to both break up the monotony of the chorus/verse pattern, as well as to smoothly transition back into the key of F for the final chorus. It starts with D♭, the ♭VII chord in the key of E♭, which we haven't heard in the whole song up to this point, then F is used as a secondary dominant into B♭, which goes back to the tonic, E♭. The transition into the new key of F begins with Gmin, a chord that is diatonic to both E♭ and F, before moving on to E♭, which can act as both the tonic of E♭ or the ♭VII of F, then finishes off with C, which is the dominant chord in the key of F, the same chord used to move from E♭ to F in the transition section. The key change is complete, we get another energy boost from going up a whole step, and we're heading on home to the final chorus. Chorus 4: B♭, F, C, F, B♭, F, C, F , B♭, F, C, F, B♭, F, C, F, G♭, F. The first 4 chords of Chorus 3 are repeated 4 times to hammer everything home, and then it curiously goes up a half-step to a G♭ chord before returning to the tonic of F for the final hit in the song. It's another chord meant to throw the listener off a bit, showing that there's something not quite right about these ponies. So there you have it. It might sound like a traditional happy march on the outside, and if you look at the piece as a whole, that's exactly what it is. But every so often, Daniel Ingram throws in a few chords to mess with the listener. It parallels the ponies singing the song itself. It may seem like a happy little town, and that's the image the ponies are trying to project on its visitors, but you can tell that something is wrong if you pick up on the hints hidden in the details.
Wow, analyzing music really brings me back to my college days. :V