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I tried looking this up on Gemini AI, specifically inputting the chord progressions as

I, bVII7, IV (6-3), minIV I(6-4) 7V I

According to what it said, it appeared to use accidentals/borrowed chords, but when I asked it if this was used in the last part of the song

Edelweiss, edelweiss. Bless my homeland forever!

It said that it was not common to see that chord progression, which, from what it told me, was most commonly seen in rock, pop, and bluegrass, not in a traditional folk song. However, I've heard that progression used in the initial performance in A-flat, and again in B-flat when the captain and Maria sang it on stage. The song comes from the Sound of Music, a musical that was later adopted into film in 1965.

Does anyone know more about why this was done or has any more information about it? I really enjoy that particular arrangement and would love to play it on piano and/or guitar, as I don't like the covers that just use standard progressions. I like to shift the bass note around for unusual voicing effects, as well. For context, I am including one of the performances below.

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    "Eidelweiss" was written for The Sound of Music. It's a common misconception that it's traditional. Does that answer your question? Commented Nov 8, 2025 at 22:24
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    Not at all sure the bVII7 chord is correct. I feel I7 is more appropriate. And that sequence often has bVII9 instead of IVm. The singing is good, but the guitar playing... Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 7:44
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    Re Tim’s comment: note that, in C, a 7th chord of “C over Bb” is not a “Bb 7th chord” Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 14:03
  • Is this a case where chord symbols or Nashville numbers (with bass notes) might be more helpful than Roman numerals?  It might be written: 1 1/7♭ 4/6 4m/6♭ 1/5 5⁷ 1. Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 14:56
  • Are you meaning the chords right at the beginning? Or would you indicate the Bar numbers. Commented Nov 10, 2025 at 8:11

3 Answers 3

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You’ve got the progression wrong. You are maybe confused by the voice going to the 9th, but look at the guitar. The only thing that changes between first and second chord is the bass note. So the true progression is

I I7(2) IV(6) iv(6) I(64) V7 I

This can be seen as related to the basic passacaglia ostinato, which is a descending tetrachord (usually in minor). This is quite a common progression throughout history of music, and a very common harmonization of this would be

i i7(2) iv(6) V7

Now, the given progression is quite similar to this. It is in major, for one thing, but also it adds two chords: A borrowed minor IV, used to create a chromatic descent in the bass to the the V and a I(64) as a classical preparation of the dominant.

So really the thing here is the stepwise descending bass: 1-b7-6-b6-5-5-1, which is a relatively normal thing to do. And there are limited ways to classically harmonize a stepwise descending bass.

Also taking arrangements: The first one I found uses exactly this progression: https://musescore.com/barbossathepianist/the-sound-of-music---edelweiss--piano-and-tenor (even though it labels it as I-v6(6)-..., which is a weird interpretation, as a minor dominant resolving to subdominant is ... well, uncommon, while a I7 resolving to IV is a regular secondary dominant progression).

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  • Wouldn't take much (any!) notice of the guitar playing. It seems to be tuned to Eb, but sounds like open A and E chords, from the voicings - certainly not what his fingers are doing! A real guitarist is playing those open chords. No real clues there, I'm afraid. Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 9:49
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    @Tim I did not mean this as “look at what he is playing”, but “consider the guitar notes”. But even looking at it at 0:51 it seems consistent with him playing the open a and a, c♯, e on the top three strings (fretting 2,3 on the second fret), and at 0:53 the fretted notes remain the same, while the bass progresses to 3rd fret on bottom string. So here I think even the visuals clearly match what it played. Just that everything is a semitone lower. So I’d guess the guitar would be tune in a one half step lower scordatura, as playing Ab major on the guitar with standard scordatura is adventurous. Commented Nov 9, 2025 at 10:24
  • Thanks for the explanation. You are right, when I listened to the I7(2) it definitely sounds more like a dominant seventh than an actual F#maj9 chord like I originally thought. Also, I wanted to suggest that on the minor chord iv(6), I sometimes hear it as a half-diminished or flat5, so I wonder if that would be written as iv-dim(6) but not confuse it with a fully diminished chord. Commented Nov 12, 2025 at 7:57
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No name for this unusual sequence, which is incorrectly described in the question. Unusual sequences don't often get named specifically. It's not like 'it's a 12 bar'.

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This is called the subdominant Cadence: I I7 IV iv, whereby I7 = V²:IV

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