At bar 65 the first violins hit middle C, and when they do they cease playing the A minor scale and simply play C continuously until the end of the piece (i.e., for more than 250 beats). Eleven bars later the second violins hit a low A and play that continuously. Similarly the other voices gradually find the note that they have been seeking and once reached, they play it continuously until the end. The last to lock into place are the contrabasses which alight on a low A in bar 103. At this stage, the whole ensemble is playing an A minor chord very very loudly, and this continues for five bars, then on the second beat of the last bar they suddenly stop. At that moment, the bell is struck very quietly ("pianissimo") so that the striking itself is not heard, but only the reverberations as it dies away. As the final bell toll reverberates, with all other instruments silent, the overtones of the bell become prominently audible – in particular, the fourth overtone (fifth partial), which is the note C-sharp, i.e., the "major" third of the fundamental pitch (A) of the entire piece. This creates a striking effect, as the entire piece is set in the key of A "minor", so that in the dying echoes of the final bell, the last thing the listener hears is actually an A "major" chord contained within the overtones of the bell. This evokes the common Renaissance and Baroque technique called the "Picardy third", in which a piece set in a minor mode or key nonetheless ends on a major chord, evoking a ray of light piercing through the clouds, and suggesting hope, resurrection, or redemption. Here, however, the effect is subtle, because it arises solely from the overtones of a single strike of the bell, rather than from separate instruments or voices.