The Rolling Stones · 1968
Sympathy for the Devil
8 notes across the harmonic analysis · 2 different passage shapes.
Chord-derived pitch classes, after David Temperley. The melody and other unannotated notes are not included. Method & limits
All annotated harmonies combined
Whole analysis
Circle 255 · 8 notes
C♯ · D · D♯ · E · F♯ · G♯ · A · B
Does not fit inside one diatonic scale. This combines notes across time; compare the passages below to see where the field changes.
Source passage · Vr1
Verse 1
Circle 127 · 7 notes
C♯ · D · E · F♯ · G♯ · A · B
Fits within a diatonic collection; no tonic is implied. This field belongs to this passage, not necessarily the whole song.
Source passage · Ch
Chorus
Circle 59 · 5 notes
D♯ · E · F♯ · G♯ · B
Fits within a diatonic collection; no tonic is implied. This field belongs to this passage, not necessarily the whole song.
Source passage · Vr2
Verse 2
Circle 127 · 7 notes
C♯ · D · E · F♯ · G♯ · A · B
Fits within a diatonic collection; no tonic is implied. This field belongs to this passage, not necessarily the whole song.
Source passage · Fadeout
Fadeout
Circle 127 · 7 notes
C♯ · D · E · F♯ · G♯ · A · B
Fits within a diatonic collection; no tonic is implied. This field belongs to this passage, not necessarily the whole song.
Source & interpretation
David Temperley’s harmonic analysis of Sympathy for the Devil ↗, from the de Clercq–Temperley RS 200 corpus. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
The complete field includes all harmonies in the source’s S rule. The passages are its named top-level units; direct chords outside those units still contribute to the whole field. Repeated units with the same notes are merged. Labels such as “Passage A” preserve the source where a conventional section name is not given.
Notes and circle assignments are calculated by Chordfields from that analysis. They have not been independently verified against the recording. Read the full method.