Editing Picardy third (section)

{{Short description|Musical cadence}}
[[File:Picardy third.svg|thumb|300px|Picardy third ending an [[Aeolian harmony|Aeolian]] (natural minor) progression<hr /> [[File:Picardy third i iv i v I.mid]]]]

A '''Picardy third''', ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɪ|k|ər|d|i}}; {{langx|fr|'''tierce picarde'''}}) also known as a '''Picardy cadence''' or '''Tierce de Picardie''', is a major chord of the [[tonic (music)|tonic]] at the end of a musical [[Musical form|section]] that is either [[musical mode|modal]] or in a [[minor scale|minor key]]. This is achieved by raising the [[third (chord)|third]] of the expected [[Minor chord|minor triad]] by a [[semitone]] to create a [[Major chord|major triad]], as a form of [[resolution (music)|resolution]].<ref>[[Percy Scholes]] (ed.), ''[[The Oxford Companion to Music]]: Self-indexed and with a Pronouncing Glossary and Over 1,100 Portraits and Pictures'', ninth edition, completely revised and reset and with many additions to text and illustrations (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955), pp.&nbsp;1027–28.</ref>

For example, instead of a [[cadence (music)|cadence]] ending on an [[A minor]] [[chord (music)|chord]] containing the notes A, C, and E, a Picardy third ending would consist of an [[A major]] chord containing the notes A, C{{Music|sharp}}, 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=How Picard was the "Picardy Third"?|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/6bfd3dc655e85d21d01d1bda988fe37e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819340|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2 January 2021|website=[[ProQuest]]}}</ref>
[[File:Schutz Heu mihi, Domine from Cantiones Sacrae 01.wav|thumb|233px|Schütz "Heu mihi, Domine" from ''Cantiones Sacrae'', 1625]]
[[File:Schutz Heu mihi, Domine from Cantiones Sacrae 02.png|thumb|500px|center|[[Heinrich Schütz|Schütz]] "Heu mihi, Domine" from ''[[Cantiones sacrae (Schütz)|Cantiones Sacrae]]'', 1625]]
Philosopher [[Peter Kivy]] writes:{{blockquote|Even in [[instrumental]] 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 [[absolute music]]'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.<ref>[[Peter Kivy]], ''Osmin's Rage: Philosophical Reflections on Opera, Drama, and Text, with a New Final Chapter'' (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999), p.&nbsp;289. {{ISBN|978-0-8014-8589-3}}.</ref>}}

According to [[Deryck Cooke]], "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."<ref>[[Deryck Cooke]], ''[[The Language of Music]]'' (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), p.&nbsp;57.</ref>

As a [[harmony|harmonic]] device, the Picardy third originated in Western music in the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] era.