Picardy Third
Raising the third of the final tonic chord at the end of a minor-key work
Related
A Picardy third raises the third of the final tonic chord at the end of a minor-key piece or section, closing on a major tonic. It is common in Renaissance and Baroque music; Bach's chorales often end so.
It gives a dark minor key a bright final sonority and brings the tonic closer to the major triad of the harmonic series. It does not change the key: only the final chord's third is altered, a last adjustment of modal colour at the cadence.
It is not a modulation or a borrowed major chord. The piece remains minor, and only the last chord has its third raised; if the whole passage has turned major, that is not a Picardy third. The name's origin is uncertain, and a direct link with the French region is doubtful.
Sources
- 定义、历史用法与名称问题参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Picardy third"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.