Analyzing Hisaishi Joe's Song "Reprise"

Question

I was trying to analyze a song called "Reprise" from my favorite composer Hisaishi Joe and it really blew my mind how this song keep changing Keys and doing all this harmony techniques that I don't get. So I need some help to analyze this and explain it to me.

(this is the song)

1. Picture 1 (Listen from 0.30)

this is a G major key song

if you see picture number 1 at bar 6 they end the part with the G Chord and at part [C] they go and start with the D Chord which is the dominant chord on the G key the feeling this part give is kind of odd? not common to me. is this part some kind of "Diatonic modulation"? and they went to D key for a while? could anybody analysis this chord progression for me? this something happen here? or am I just over thinking and he just started with the dominant chord (and if he did isn't that kind of weird ? to start the part with a dominant chord ?)

2. Picture 2 (Listen From 1:04)

At bar 3 after G/D it goes to A/C# and then it goes to C maj chord. is the A/C# just a passing chord? How could you go to A/C# to C maj ?

3. Picture 3 (listen From 2:00)

(at this point the song changed in to E maj Key)

now if you see at part [H] he went from B7 to G Maj chord is this "Deceptive Cadence" using flat 3 Maj7 modal interchange chord? which is G Maj chord from the E Maj key?

and from this Part [H] the key changed again to C Maj Key

and after the beginning G chord C#m7-5/G came out..what is this chord ? how could this just come out of no where on C Maj key? this four bars going from G major chord too the C Maj Chord. I dont get this chord progression whats going on?

(I'm kind of thinking that it went to G key instead of C Key because after the beginning G chord the C#m7-5 is the #lVm7-5 of the G Maj key and its also used as Tonic on the G Maj key so after that it went down to F Maj which is another modal interchage chord "flat Vll M7" on the G key and also a pivot chord to C Maj Key which is about to come out an then comes the F dim7 which could be kind of like G7 flat 9 with out the root than it goes to C Maj Key..what do you think?)

4.

Picture 4 (listen from 2:40)

so its still C Maj key

and if you see at bar 4 its ends the part with D7 and gives a little space to the next bar and then at Part [J] it goes to this part with no chords.. so whats really going on here..

I'm kind of thinking that it went to G7 which is the Dominant chord on the C maj key and its just extending it and they didn't wrote down the chord because its just arpeggios going on and no harmony

5.

At picture 5 (3:00)

now the arpeggios stops and came to Am7 (in the orginal orchestra version the arpeggios goes on while chords keep on coming out from now on) if what I said at Picture 4,G7 Extended arpeggio thing was right then it fits that it came to Am7

after a few bars it goes starts again with Am to Em/B

and from this part I really don't know whats going on in this chord progressions I couldn't find anyways to connect this progressions to make sense to me..

whats going on here??..

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wow it really took me long to right this all down.. I hope I didn't come too complicated.. sorry for my poor English. English isn't my first language hope I get some good answers

Answer 1

Lots of questions, but they're good ones!

1. At [C], the music has moved into G major. Two bars before [C], the Am7-D7-G is just a ii7-V7-I progression that modulates to G major. As such, the D at [C] is just the dominant of G.

2. We can analyze this A/C♯ a few ways, but I think the most important thing to recognize is the chromatically descending bassline. Starting with the Em chord, the bass moves E-D♯-D♮-C♯-C♮. The A/C♯ is just a passing chord that harmonizes that C♯ in the bass.

3. The B7 to G resolution is a type of deceptive resolution, yes. Typically deceptive resolutions go to ♭VI, but ♭III (which is what G is in the key of E) are also possible. As for the C♯m7♭5/G, I wouldn't worry too much about trying to analyze that one; I think it's a pretty poor label, honestly, and it just confuses what's actually happening. In my opinion, it's best to just recognize this as chromatic motion between the G and F chords.

4. [J] is just a vague in-between space that splits A minor and C major. This is another type of deceptive motion, because you were expecting a G chord after the D7.

5. After the cadence on Am, the music moves towards C major. The Fmaj7 to G9 are firmly in C major, but then the music uses mode mixture with the Fm and Gm harmonies. The mode mixture continues with the A♭ and B♭ chords; ♭VI to ♭VII to I is a really common progression, and that's all that's taking place here. (But note that it resolves to A, the vi, not to C, the I.)

You may try asking these questions individually; you'll probably get more in-depth answers that way.