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I was analyzing "Try to Remember" from the musical "The Fantasticks" and became stumped on what seems to be a flatted seventh major chord stuck in the middle of the song. I'd like to understand what's going on and how it fits in with the rest of the nearby chords.

In this arrangement, it's the F major chord at the end of the fourth line. Are we in a separate key at this point? Is this just a substitution for another chord?

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The 'middle 8', as in so many songs, is a jump to a slightly remote chord then a 'cycle of 5ths' sequence back to the tonic. But this time it hits the tonic and keeps on going! Bm7, Em7, Am7, D7, Gmaj7 (we're home) Cmaj7, F - then a side-slip back to the dominant (D7) and home (G). Nice, isn't it!

I could come up with some theory about bVII being a dominant substitute or 'borrowed' from somewhere. But the simple truth is that bVII is so common in today's music as to almost count as diatonic.

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    I don't disagree that it is basically diatonic, but that still means it has to have a function, and I would say it has predominant function, same as ii or IV.
    – trlkly
    Commented Mar 9, 2020 at 11:03
  • It has a function in the backwards direction, as the culmination of the 'cycle of 5ths' string. Going forwards - well it certainly precedes the dominant! But it could just as well have gone other places. I don't see a strong function there.
    – Laurence
    Commented Mar 9, 2020 at 13:59
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    as it has already been discussed in the earlier question bVII is a borrowed chord of the mixolydian mode. Functional it works to me like a suspension of V7 ...
    – Albrecht Hügli
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 7:17
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    Oh, anything can be justified as 'borrowed' from SOMEWHERE. I'm not sure that sort of labelling helps very much.
    – Laurence
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 18:51
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I think it works there because it is the end of the circle of 5ths (not necessarily all dominant, but the root movement anyway starting with the Bm7) , but the F chord (FAC), especially with the melody notes A and E are substituting for ii there in a ii V I progression going back to G. The F note acts as sort of a suspension resolving to the E. One has to be a little flexible with the terms here to see how the notes can be played with.

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bVII can be considered as a substitution of V7.

e.g. we expect V7 in a semi clause of a phrase and bVII substitutes V7 (d,f are shared tones of both chords).

see my answer - and many good other answers here:

Why do many songs in major keys use a bVII chord?

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    as I said in another comment suspended V7 :BbDF-> GBDF (DF are common tones. (this impression of suspension and substitution may be quite subjective: beause I'm expecting V7 and I feel fooled by the introduction of bVII - at least the very first time. Meanwhile we are so used of this progression that we are expecting bVII in similar situations ;) - I say also substitution as it occurs in a semi clause (usually at the end of a phrase that is repeated - where we are used to have the dominant in classic music - and the second time the repeated phrase leads to the final clause.
    – Albrecht Hügli
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 14:29

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