A picardy is a minor-major switcheroo. When music is sad, and suddenly turns triumphant, this is the picardy at work. And it is all thanks to one little note – the Third or Mediant.
In the example above, the Mediant is the note in the middle – the Third. In C Minor the mediant E Flat, gets sharpened up to an E for a C Major. C Minor picardies to a C Major and it feels goods. To discover why, we turn to the dreaded Harmonic Series!
Consonances are found in the lower harmonics, while dissonances are found in the higher harmonics. You can see a C Major chord forming early on in the first five harmonics (C G C E G). Thus, every pitched note you hear has an implicit Majorness to it, as per the harmonic series.
A picardy used as a musical device not only makes us happy by switching to Major, but because it changes key on the same degree, has an extra triumphant boost. The tonic C overcomes his sad minor self, sharpening his third to an E, and becomes consonant, major, and awesome.
Aye picardies! Radiohead do it, The Beatles did it, J.S.Bach did it so cheesey, but no one do it like Lionel:
“Hello” Picardy by Lionel Richie
It begins on A Minor with a “Hello”, down to G, then F, then picardies up to an A Major for the “looking for!”
Picardy also has plenty of cheeky potential. Take the example from “Roundabout” by Yes, a Minor classic that resolves in a picardied E Major chord.
Very cheeky. Or is it pretentious?
Here’s a cheeky picardy of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” written on the Casiotone mt-46.
This is a highly cheeky picardy because of all the blue notes – those devilish D sharps. It’s downright bebop now. The phrase is the same as the original until the end where it picardies at the C#, which is usually a C natural, and in the key of A Minor, now picardied to A major. Cheer up there Beethoven!
Less common is the “Reverse Picardy” where a Major song turns Minor. It seems that the Harmonic series pushes human music ever and ever Major.
Here’s a version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor – a reversed picardy of its former self. The usual “I V vi iii IV I IV V” is now minored where major and majored where minor, making it “i v VI III vi i iv v”.
Surely this is both sad and pretentious!
The Pink Floyd song A Pillow of Winds is structured “Major-Minor-Major”. It’s a Picardy Trip!
It’s your turn now at home. Can you help think of notable picardies, Major Minor switcheroo’s, and the like? Just write ’em down in the comments section.
