Okay, does anybody know what this is called? In a minor piece, the last chord is changed to the same major chord. E.g. a piece is in D minor, but then on the ending chord, it uses a D major chord. I've seen a lot of this being used in baroque music (which is why I put it in my integrated assignment).

If you could help, that would be great. I've got an integrated assignment evaluation exam tomorrow and apparently I have to know what it's called.

it is called a tierce de picardie and is a common feature of baroque music

I really, really want to tell you to go and revise or something but as I'm kind (and mostly Harmless) the answer is Tierce de Picardie.

They know you know! It can be called a Picardy third also.

Well, when I say exam, it's more a case of, answer the questions before the exam (because they are extremely predictable), write them down and take the notes in (because you're allowed for some reason). Also, I don't think the examiners expect GCSE people to have a clue what it's called.

Dont you mean 'Mos L'Harmless'

or however they spell it

Are you a Runescape player?

In the United States, we call it a Picardy Third as well. Tierce de Picarde is the Italian translation, I'm guessing?

Actually, the Italian expression is "terza piccarda" while "Tierce de Picardie" is French.
John


In French, it can also be "tierce Picarde".
Bye

Is it still called that if the tonality changes from major to minor?

Nope - it refers only to the change in the third of the chord.

EDIT : Oops - I just realised that I probably misunderstood what you meant - tonality in French means key and I didn't have my English head one when I read your question! I thought you were asking if you could use the term when the key changed from major to minor - oops !

To answer more fully, I've never heard the term used in the other direction, although some French musicians refer to the major to minor as tierce de picardie renversée. This might be a made up term, though...

Tierce de Picardie is specifically the use of the tonic major to end a movement in the minor mode; I have never heard the name in any other context. It is common in sonata movements in minor keys for the exposition of the second subject to be in the relative major (e.g. Eb for a C minor movement, as in Mozart's C minor Serenade for winds, or the C minor string quintet, which is a transcription of the same piece). The modulations to get there and return have no special names, AFAIK. Alternation of major and minor modes on the same keynote is sometimes called "modal mixture"; Schubert exploits this more than most.

Why didn't you ask your teacher? Or doesn't he/she know? Or won't he/she tell you? Anyway, hope the exam went well - does sound a bit of a nonsense to me if you know what the question is, and you can take in notes!

That was kind of harsh, don't you think? I'm pretty sure the OP poster wouldn't have had to ask unless s/he absolutely had to.

No, it wasn't meant to be harsh at all. Perhaps I should have used the appropriate emoticon, but it was a straight question and no criticism was intended. I'm genuinely curious as to why the OP didn't ask their teacher or, if they did, why they weren't given an answer. If a pupil of mine needed to know about tierces de Picardie, especially for an exam the following day, I would have told them!

No, the other way round: "Tierce de Picarde" isn't a translation from the American - the phrase existed before the US.

a tierce de picardie
DAVID

David, did you forget to read the other replies? You wouldn't have just assumed none of them had answered the OP's question already?

"That's the trouble with the French - they've got no word for 'entrepreneur'." - G W Bush.