35.76Apply it to “Happy Birthday”

Now we can create another transformation.

Phrase 1

start with familiar harmony.

Phrase 2

introduce a dominant that seems to point toward one destination but resolve elsewhere.

Phrase 3

temporarily tonicize a remote minor center.

Final phrase

return with an unmistakable ii–V–I.

The melody remains familiar.

The harmony tells a story of:

expectation → surprise → displacement → homecoming.

That is a much deeper kind of reharmonization than “replace chord X with fancy chord Y.”