Analyzing: Yiruma's "If I Could See You Again"

About the Composer

Yiruma is the stage name of I Ru-ma (born February 15, 1978), a popular internationally known pianist and composer from South Korea. The name "Yiruma" means "I shall achieve" in Korean.

Yiruma frequently performs at sold-out concerts in As

ia, Europe and North America. His Alma Mater King's College in England helped him gain European popularity and recognition. His most popular pieces include, "River Flows in You", "Kiss the Rain", and "May Be". His most popular album First Love was released in 2001.

Yiruma's musical style is easy to misclassify. Because his music is popular among many listeners who are not familiar with classical music, the solo piano instrumentation and tendency toward "movements" often leads to labels like "new classical" or "contemporary classical". However, although his composition studies would have included the classics, neither the structure of his pieces nor his technique as a pianist are heavily influenced by them. His music has sometimes been classified vaguely as "popular", as shown by the inclusion of his hit piece River Flows in You on a compilation of wedding pieces titled "Wedding Essentials: The Ceremony".

In most of his composition, pattern and repetition feature prominently, however, making the structure more like popular pieces or movie themes than traditional solo piano compositions. Yiruma's pieces are also heavy in simple melody and rhythm, making them immediately attractive to many modern ears

Background of this Piece

"If I Could See You Again" is a piano instrumental piece composed by Yiruma. This piece is included in his 1st album "First Love", which was released in 2001. Although the melodies are quite repetitive, it brings out the eagerness and hope to see the person once again, as the title suggested. This piece is very popular among many young piano players and has been used in many Korea Drama Series.

Harmonic Analysis

Let's start with the overview of the key of this song. Throughout the whole piece, it is generally played in A major and a modulation to D major at the 2nd page bar 7. It is modulated back to A major at the 3rd page bar 4. This modulation is quite a common practice during the Baroque/Classical era as there are many pieces that are modulated to the pre-dominant of the starting key. In my opinion, I believe that the composer has tried to retain the Classical element of modulation and he has successfully done so.

If you have noticed, Yiruma has added in some pop chord symbols and style such as A(add9) in the 1st bar and many of the pop chords symbols like Dm/F, E7sus4, A(add2) are heavily used in this piece. As such, Yiruma has injected the element of pop chords into a music with Classical element as mentioned in the 1st paragraph of the Harmonic Analysis section. To explain further, A(add 9) means to play a A chord with a B note that is one octave higher than the bass note( note that it is the 9th note from the bass note). Likewise, A(add2) means to play a A chord with a B note that is beside the bass note.(2nd note from the bass note) In addition, chords like Dm/F means Dm chord over F, means to play a Dm chord with a bass F. E7sus4 means to play a E chord with a 7th(EG#BD) and a added A(note that it's the 4th note from the bass note E).

The basic chords progression for the 1st theme( bar 1- 13) is I-iv-I-iii-ii-V7-I. and whereas for the 2nd theme(pg 2 bar 7-24) is V6/5-I(sus2)-iv6/5-iii-ii-IV(sus2)-I- V6/5-I(sus2)-iv6/5-iii-ii-IV(sus2)-I. This piece is quite repetitive with the chord progression pretty much the same for the 1st theme and the 2nd theme but nonetheless it still captures the painful emotion of parting with love one and the hope of seeing the love one again.

Phrase Analysis

In general, this piece is in Ternary form(A-B-A). The section A is from Bar 1 of Pg 1 to Bar 6 of Pg 2. Section B is from Bar 7 of Pg 2 to Bar 3 of Pg 3. Section A returns again at Bar 4 of Pg3 to Bar 16( note that this time the A section is shorter compare to the 1st time.) Section B returns again at the repeat sign and ends at the same place. The theme returns again and ends with the motif from the A section.

The piece is in simple sentence structure generally which consists of many antecedent phrases(bar 1-2 for example) and consequent phrases(bar 3-4 for examples) and has an asymmetrical structure (1+1+2) for the most part of section A. Even so, there's a sense of balance achieved through section A.

For the B section, it doesn't have any clear form of phrasing and it is an asymmetrical phrasing throughout section B. (it's like 2+1+2+2+2). As such, it is made up of many irregular phrasing with many short phrases.

Analyzing Jay Chou's ”枫“

Background of the Song

《枫》(Maple Leaf) is composed by Jay Chou and sung by himself. This song is included in his 6th Album 《十一月的肖邦》(Literally, November Chopin) The reason for the title of the album is because Jay Chou chose to release this album on the 1st of November, which coincide with the Autumn Season in Taiwan. Why Chopin? Chopin is Jay Chou's favourite pianist. The maple leaf is often associated with the Autumn season and often brings about the emotion of parting with his/her lover in the Chinese Tradition. Jay Chou said of this song, " Fall is filled with memories. Maple leaves fall slowly and land on the ground, like pieces of memories piece together. The North Wind swept across your face, and I wonder when I would be able to feel the North Wind together with you again."

《枫》became a instant hit in the Chinese Pop Music industry and top the Chinese Pop Music Chart for 7 consecutive weeks after the release. Although this song did not receive any award, it was ranked top 10 songs of the year in 2006 by producers and composers of the Chinese Pop Music industry.

Harmonic Analysis

Let's start with the overview of the key of this song. Generally, the key of this song is in C major and modulate to Db Major at bar 5o, which is the bridge and ends with Db major key. I wish I do not sound like I'm generalising here but in comparison to Western Music Harmony, this is quite an unusual practice to modulate to a key that has no relation to the home key. In my understanding of Western Music Harmony, composers usually would prefer to modulate/transpose to keys that are related to the home key( dominant-tonic relation?). In this song, Jay Chou instead chose to modulate to Db Major, which is transposition of minor 2nd up from C major. In my opinion, I would think that the reason behind this is because if Jay Chou were to modulate to G Major( Dominant of C Major), imagine how Jay Chou would sound like with a "squeaky" voice. It would be very uncomfortable and weird for him to sing at that kind of range.

this is a sample of how Jay Chou will sound like if it is modulated up to G Major


P.S: it is modified by the iphone app Capo and recorded using Audacity.
P.P.S : sorry for the kola bear, main point is the voice, not the picture :P

Let's move on. Verse I and Verse II (bar 6-21) the chords are as follow: I-V6-IV-I-IV-I65-vi-IV-V(this is a simplified version and doesn't include pop chords as most are very complicated and not learnt yet at this stage)

This chord progession stays on throughtout until it reaches the chorus I(bar 22-30) where it changes to: I-V-III(picardy 3rd? intended E minor chord with G#)-vi-iii-IV-iii-VI(again, picardy 3rd? inteneded A minor chord with C#)-ii-V-I. I'm not sure about it but it suggested a shortened cycle of 5ths progression at bar 26-30. (usual chord progression is I-vii-IV-iii-vi-ii-V-I) . Chorus II(bar 30-38) basically retained the same progression except at bar 37 where it is chord IV and a seven-diminished 5th (G#BDF) chord.

This song is quite repetitive with the chord progression pretty much the same for the verse and the chorus part. However, it is the melody and the lyrics that captures the mood of the entire song.

Phrase Analysis

Verse I &II are in a simple sentence structure which consist of an antecedent phrase(bar 6-9) and a consequent phrase(bar10-13). However, the phrasing is an asymmetric with a 2+2+4 subphrase, short-short-long subphrase to be exact.


In the chorus section, bar 22-23 (ending on the high G) is a short antecedent phrase. Bar 23(D note)-25(E note) is a short consequent phrase. This pattern repeats at Bar 25-27( start on the 3rd beat E note and end at the E note 3rd beat). Then at bar 28-29, it is a short one bar antecedent phrase and a one bar consequent phrase. As anaysize, the chorus section is made up of an irregular phrasing with many short phrase.