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

429 LETTERS to your opinion, but none of this in the sense meant by the Greek founders and of later musicians. The Greeks had their simple elements of consonance, numbering three: 8ve, 5th, 4th. To these, those who came later added the other two simple elements of the two thirds, major and minor. If the result is the same, the origin of the result is indeed not the same, and this result, which is substantially different from your system, must not be twisted to your meaning, but must be expounded as it is, and as it is understood even today; otherwise it will be said that you wish to adjust to your favour. At number 3: the fifth, most perfect among all consonances . Let’s see how true that is. The Greeks, and all of us are in agreement on the utmost perfection not of the fifth, but of the octave. I apologise one thousand times: with what authority do you put forth such a proposition? At the same number 3: and the only consonances that can join the fifth without dissonance, are the two thirds, major and minor . Very true, but the sense of this interpretation and of the discreet geometrical sesquialter divided by the two means, harmonic and arithmetical, and determined as the prime foundation is indeed opposed to the truth, which is of the two sextuples, harmonic and arithmetical, in which the two above-mentioned thirds are necessary parts of a quite different system of proportion. At number 4 : the most elegant passages of melody are the leaps of fourth and fifth . What has elegance got to do with this, if not by inverting completely the true sense and foundation of the Greeks and of those who came after, who mean something completely different from elegance and melody in the harmonic and arithmetical division of the octave and in the constitution of the cadences? At number 5: making it so that to the three strings of the system of melody correspond the accompaniment by major third and the accompaniment by minor third, the two modes are born, major and minor . Extremely false exposition, because it is founded on the false supposition that the sesquialter is divided into two thirds independently of the sextuple system. Such a supposition gives rise to complete confusion of the two systems; their true nature, origin, influence and dependence can no longer be found; and the current practice remains entirely confused. So, if I wanted to proceed for with all the numbers, in many I would show you either an immediate mistake or a derived confusion of sense; in many cases a mistake of understanding confusing accidental things with the essential parts; and in many others (and distinctly concerning the modes, which you greatly expound on) an inability of expression and falsity of principles, they being nothing else than the octaves divided harmonically and arithmetically. I shall omit the dissonances, because I totally exclude your system; so to conclude, it seems that your exposition is based not in accordance with the truth of the ancient institutions and later ones, but with the needs of your system. No, Lord Count and Patron, in this way we cannot agree; in fact, in this case I am less suited than anyone to debate with you on the said matter, because more than anybody I want two presuppositions to be secure and inalterable. First: history, facts and solely essential parts, exactly as they were constructed by the Greeks and by those who came later with full rigour and in their true sense. Second: physical-sounding phenomena exactly as