Picardy third

A Picardy third, also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the <a href="/facts/Tonic_(music)/3YWh9zFV">tonic</a> at the end of a musical <a href="/facts/Musical_form/JrnVvFDq">section</a> that is either <a href="/facts/Musical_mode/uzguYm9j">modal</a> or in a <a href="/facts/Minor_scale/MedkQtlE">minor key</a>. This is achieved by raising the <a href="/facts/Third_(chord)/YzsgV9Gf">third</a> of the expected <a href="/facts/Minor_chord/XdLGImHS">minor triad</a> by a <a href="/facts/Semitone/lVBsLYSA">semitone</a> to create a <a href="/facts/Major_chord/RwuuqKYS">major triad</a>, as a form of <a href="/facts/Resolution_(music)/5TLIIqFV">resolution</a>.
For example, instead of a <a href="/facts/Cadence_(music)/9AuxqJD4">cadence</a> ending on an <a href="/facts/A_minor/9eLhXgnd">A minor</a> <a href="/facts/Chord_(music)/hJBCHCSB">chord</a> containing the notes A, C, and E, a Picardy third ending would consist of an <a href="/facts/A_major/30sVcrBo">A major</a> chord containing the notes A, C♯, and E. The minor third between the A and C of the A minor chord has become a major third in the Picardy third chord.

Philosopher <a href="/facts/Peter_Kivy/TKgeFGDB">Peter Kivy</a> writes:<blockquote>Even in <a href="/facts/Instrumental/LgT0uHzo">instrumental</a> music, the picardy third retains its expressive quality: it is the "happy third". ... Since at least the beginning of the seventeenth century, it is no longer enough to describe it as a resolution to the more consonant triad; it is a resolution to the happier triad as well. ... The picardy third is <a href="/facts/Absolute_music/nzAsyatX">absolute music</a>'s happy ending. Furthermore, I hypothesize that in gaining this expressive property of happiness or contentment, the picardy third augmented its power as the perfect, most stable cadential chord, being both the most emotionally consonant chord, so to speak, as well as the most musically consonant.</blockquote>
According to <a href="/facts/Deryck_Cooke/oWNG6Lks">Deryck Cooke</a>, "Western composers, expressing the 'rightness' of happiness by means of a major third, expressed the 'wrongness' of grief by means of the minor third, and for centuries, pieces in a minor key had to have a 'happy ending' – a final major chord (the 'tierce de Picardie') or a bare fifth."
As a <a href="/facts/Harmony/Uwagvon2">harmonic</a> device, the Picardy third originated in Western music in the <a href="/facts/Renaissance_music/MvSjNt2G">Renaissance</a> era.

Picardy third open-in-new

Picardy third