32: A special case in minor-- the Picardy Third

There’s a particular situation, usually at the end of a piece, and certainly at the end of a phrase (because it involves a cadence) in minor that’s so common it merits its own article: when a piece that is otherwise in minor has a final cadence not to the minor i, but to the major I. We call this a Picardy third, but somehow, no one knows exactly why. (To be funny, some people have called the opposite (exceedingly rare) event-- an otherwise major piece cadencing to a final minor tonic chord-- the Occitan third, for the French region as far from Picardy as possible, but that certainly is not an official term.)

A quick trick to spot these: a Picardy third necessarily has an accidental since the third in minor is not the third in major, and there needs to be either a natural or a sharp written in, either to raise a natural to a sharp (the third of D minor is F, which in a Picardy third becomes an F#) or raise a flat to a natural (the third of G minor is Bb, which in a Picardy third becomes B).

These tend to lighten the mood, so to speak, allowing an otherwise stormy minor piece to end in the light of major—so don’t assume that just because something is in minor it will have one, or not. It’s always a good idea to check, once you know something is in minor, if the final cadence is to the minor i, or to the major I via a Picardy third, to get an idea of where the piece is going to end.

Here, for example, are the last few measures of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto. It’s in D minor, and, depending on the edition, there is or isn’t a Picardy third. (I happened to learn the Concerto with the Picardy third, and just a few weeks ago, I saw my wonderful hometown Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform it, also with the Picardy third.) There is a quick and easy way to tell if there is a Picardy third or not, at the end of any phrase, but that requires a new type of notation which we’ll cover very soon. For now, just look at the notes, notice by the key signature we’re in D minor, and then notice the typical F natural is replaced by an F# in the final chord. This is the Picardy third in action.

A sheet music with black and white lines AI-generated content may be incorrect.

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