Picardy third
A Picardy third (also known as Tierce de Picardie) is a harmonic device used in European classical music.
It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key. This is achieved by raising the third of the expected minor triad by a semitone to create a major triad, as a form of resolution.[1]
For example, instead of a cadence ending on an A minor chord containing the notes A, C, and E, a tierce de Picardie ending would consist of an A major chord containing the notes A, C#, and E. Note that the minor third between the A and C of the A minor chord has become a major third in the tierce de Picardie chord.
The Picardy third does not necessarily occur at the end of a section: it can be found at any perfect cadence or plagal cadence where the prevailing key is minor.
The "reverse" Picardy third, where an expected major chord is replaced by its minor equivalent, is almost never used at the end of a work - an example of this rarity is in Mendelssohn's Characteristic Piece Op. 7 No. 7 in E. A similar effect, often used, is created with a deceptive cadence in the relative minor key (for example, in C major, replacing the expected tonic chord with A minor); this effect utilises the lowered third but without affirming the tonic key.
Example
Here is an example from Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata Ich habe genug (BWV 82)in G Minor at a cadence in the right-hand of a realised continuo part.
What makes this cadence a tierce de Picardie is shown by the red natural sign – instead of the expected B flat (which would make the chord minor) the accidental gives us a B natural, making the chord major.
Other examples include the last chord in the first movement of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor and the final chord in Gregorio Allegri's Miserere Mei, Deus. The Bach is a good example of the "stable" character of a Picardy third, while the Miserere Mei can easily be interpreted as "bittersweet".
Listen here: Miserere
Concerto for Two Violins
Thomas Bateson's 15th century madrigal 'Your Shining Eyes' features use of the Picardy third in bar 16.
A more modern example is found in The Beatles' "And I Love Her", which closes on a D major chord from a final passage in the key of F major/D minor. Other modern examples include Roundabout by the band Yes and Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns N' Roses.
History
The origins of the term are obscure. An idea that was repeated as fact for some time, but which turns out to have no provable basis, was that expounded by Rousseau in his 1767 Theory of Music: that this form of ending survived longest in church music, and due to the great number of cathedrals in historical French province of Picardy. More plausible is the idea that the North of France, and Flanders, were influential in the development of contrapuntal music in the fifteenth century.
Robert Hall (see references) opines that, instead of deriving from the Picardy region of France, it comes from the Old French word "picart," meaning "pointed" or "sharp" in northern dialects, and thus refers to the musical sharp that transforms the minor third of the chord into a major third.
There is a church in Picardie, France, where due to the acoustics if a 1st and 5th are sung a major 3rd will be added in. If a minor third is being sung at the same time as the 1st, 5th and major 3rd, this creates dissonance. If a song was in a minor key then all the short notes of the melody wouldn't have time to get a major third added to them, but for the final long chord it would be dissonant if it was minor, so in that church they finished all minor songs on a major chord. This caught on and other composers started doing it just for the sound.
In medieval music, such as that of Machaut, neither major nor minor thirds were considered stable intervals, and so cadences were typically on open fifths. One of the features that marks the transition toward the end of the 15th century from the medieval to the Renaissance periods in music is the use of triads, especially Picardy-third triads, to end cadences. The Picardy third continued throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods, while the open fifth had become rare by the Baroque period. Examples of the Picardy third can be found throughout the works of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, as well as earlier composers such as Thoinot Arbeau and John Blow. It was perpetuated in the practice of musica ficta and so became a convention. According to some 17th- and early 18th-century sources, the use of a major third as an ending for minor-key pieces was regarded as sufficiently normal that often it was not written in the actual music under the assumption that the performers would realize it anyway.
This practice began to decline in the late sixteenth century and by the Classical era had been more or less discarded, although examples can be found in works by Haydn and Mozart; and in the Romantic era, those of Chopin's nocturnes that are in a minor key almost always end with Picardy thirds. A notable structural employment of this device occurs with the Finale of the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony, where the motto theme makes its first appearance in the major mode. The idea was adopted much later by the neoclassical movement.
It is notable that in the first book of J. S. Bach's The well-tempered clavier composed in 1722, only one of the twenty-four minor movements fails to end in a Picardy third, whereas in the second book, composed in 1744, fourteen end without it. (Manuscripts vary in some of these cases. This is the case with the single exception in the first book, the G# Minor fugue, which, according to the present Bach Gesellschaft edition, is thought to have been originally composed in G Minor, accounting for the natural sign rather than sharp on the third of the final chord.)
Scientific explanation
It may be possible for the aural effect of the Picardy third to be described scientifically - a major triad can be found in the 4th, 5th, and 6th harmonics of a major chord, while the minor triad can be found relatively higher in the 10th, 12th, and 15th harmonics of its respective chord. (In the language of the harmonic series, this is equivalent to saying the major chord occupies a lower location in the harmonic series relative to the minor chord.) However, psychoacousticians cannot explain why this difference is perceived by the ear as being more or less "stable".
In addition, the harmonics of the minor chord have a dissonance closer to the fundamental harmonic compared to a major chord, which creates more beats. Thus a major chord is more consonant than a minor one, and is therefore interpreted by the human ear as being more "stable".
Use in church music
Church music (especially for organ) typically uses the Picardy third more than other music[citation needed]. A well known example is the last chord of the Coventry Carol.
Interpretation
Performers who subscribe to the ideals of authenticity usually consult an Urtext edition to ensure that an editor has not added or removed any Picardy thirds – where a composer has indicated that a Picardy third should be played, it is not considered correct by current authentic performance practice to remove them.
When a composer has not directly indicated a major or minor chord to be played it is occasionally acceptable to add Picardy thirds to a work in the interests of variety, especially in earlier music. This would usually be a decision made by the continuo players in a chamber work. For example, in performances of the "Rosary" Violin Sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Biber, many continuo players add variety to the frequent repetitions in movements consisting of variations by adding the occasional Picardy third. However, over-indulgence of this liberty could weaken the work's structure.
References
- ^ The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford University Press, 1955 (Percy Scholes, ed.)
- Robert A. Hall, Jr., "How Picard was the Picardy Third?," Current Musicology 19 (1975), pages 78-80.