Dear Friends

Composer: Brian May
Meter: 4/4
Key: D-major
Form:  

 Verse | Verse'|

"Dear Friends" is a very simple piano ballad, a kind of lullaby. It is almost completly free from any syncopations and non-diatonic notes, the phrasing is square throughout. The non-syncopated rhythms and the arrangement itself is very classical-influenced, and could be arranged for string-quartett easily.
Many scale-fragments are built-in the accompaniyng chord progression.
The slow ballad tempts to chose 2/4 instead of 4/4 (shades of "All Dead")
The piano is played by Brian May.

Verse
The phrasing is 2+2+2+1+1. In m.3 we have a suspension resolution directly preceded by another suspension resolution. See this gambit also in "Procession" and "Teo Torriate". In m.3 the left hand plays arpeggiated bass, a deceptive sign, that the pianist is not Mercury this time. The third phrase shows a nice downward scalar bassline. The first chromatic note and chord is in m.4.

| D        | G(8>7) A(4>3) D   |
| I        | IV     V      I   |

| D        | A/C# G#dim/B(2>1) A   |
| I        |  V    "V/V"       V   |

| D   C#   B  A  | G  F#  E   | : bass
| D Asus4  G  D  | G  D   Em  |
| I   V    IV I  | IV I   ii  |

| Dsus2   D    |
| I            |

| Dsus2/A D/A  A7   |
|  I           V    |

The second verse adds backing harmonies. Piano adds a descending scale from the middle of m1. The ending if the section is different m.6 where a syncopation is dropped in. The closing cadence is colored with a downward scalar bass-line completed with a "contra" bass note.

m.6
| G D/F#   E7   |
| IV  I    V/V  |

| A  Asus2>3 | G  Em7  D   |
| V    -     | IV  ii  I   |