Giuseppe Tartini - Lettere e documenti / Pisma in dokumenti / Letters and Documents - Volume / Knjiga / Volume II

428 & c &c. In this example you must not strictly move from semiquavers to demisemiquavers, or from these to the others, which are worth half. This would be a jump, not a gradual acceleration, but you should imagine that between the semiquavers and demisemiquavers there are other note values, worth less than the semiquavers and more than the demisemiquavers, starting from the semiquavers to a value close to the semiquavers, then moving ever closer to the value of the demisemiquavers, until they become true demisemiquavers, and thus in proportion between the demisemiquavers and the following ones, which are worth half. You must attentively and assiduously persevere in this practice, and begin at first with an open string, because if you are able to make a good trill with the first finger, you will with greater facility make one with the second, third and even with the fourth, with which you must practise in a particular manner, as it is the smallest of its companions. I shall, at present, propose no other studies to your application, but it is more than enough if you will play you part as I have played mine. Please answer if you have understood what I have here proposed to you. In the meantime, I submit to you my regards, which I likewise beg of you to present to the prioress, to Signora Teresa and to Signora Chiara, all patronesses of mine, I confirm myself as ever to be Your Most Illustrious Ladyship’s most devoted and affectionate servant Giuseppe Tartini 141. Tartini to Giordano Riccati More than I had believed, and mentioned to Your Nobleness, I find that which is confused and badly understood in your exposition, and I sincerely confess to you that I am unable to disentangle the matter. At number 1, you say, music is a mixture of harmony and melody , but you do not explain the facts as they are. The Greek founders distinguished very well between melody and harmony, and they intended melody as we do, but not harmony. The constituent parts they called melody and harmony are essentially those intended today, but they must be understood in their precise sense, never indefinitely, as is conveyed by your exposition, which errs substantially by mixing the two different meanings of harmony into one. At number two: the ratios of consonance must not contain an odd number higher than five . You (forgive me) adjust the exposition