Pouring Harmony

"Does anyone know a bit of music terminology that we use when a minor-key piece ends with--whoa!--a brilliant major chord?"

(These are the thinkiest of students. Brows furrowed and lips were bit, but an answer failed to surface.)

"It's some kind of 'third' ... named after a town in France ..."

"Oh! Oh! The Bordeaux third!"

These are the moments for which I live. Sitting quietly (a bit bored) at the piano, with one leg over the other's knee, and with my mind occupied in equal parts by grocery lists, measure numbers and key signatures, some recent New Yorker article, a dream of a car ... I couldn't help but giggle. The Bordeaux third.