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.