Who knew happy birthday could be so beautiful?

Takashi Yoshimatsu’s reharmonisation of Happy Birthday in his “Romance on the birthday“ is a lovely and intimate gem of his unusually beautiful harmonic language. Appoggiaturas in the original arrangement are treated as harmony notes ( note B) and original harmony notes become extended harmonies with unexpected chords ( A F# D over G major). These harmonic choices often create repeated harmonies and, as a result, quite static landscapes over which countermelodies and simple imitative counterpoint seem to be comparatively salient. Just comparing the original harmonisation reveals indeed how much fewer harmonic changes there are, and the prevalence of the IV chord which also creates an illusion of G lydian at the beginning. Bar 77 is particularly expressive with its IV9 chord and the expansion in chord voicing prepared by a descending arpeggio in the previous bar. Recording (Kyoko Tabe):