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19.5: The Picardy 3rd

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    117498
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    It is rare to borrow from the major mode during a passage in a minor key. The major tonic usually functions as VivV/iv if it's not the last chord of a piece, and raised 6^ and 7^ occur naturally as part of the melodic minor scale.

    In minor, the one place to borrow from the major mode is at the end of a piece in minor, with the use of the major II chord instead of minor ii.

    mode-mix-picardy-third.svg

    /
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): J.S. Bach, French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812, Sarabande

    While the Picardy 3rd (the major third above the tonic) was most commonly encountered in the Baroque era, it has been used from then until now, though with less frequency.


    This page titled 19.5: The Picardy 3rd is shared under a GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Robert Hutchinson via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.