English version of Schoenberg

Here's my translation of Schoenberg's letter :

Schoenberg : "I have given a lot of thoughts, altough in a different way, to
your ideas about third-tones. I was convinced about quartertones, but I am
now aware that this will happen by another mean than that of construction.
Furthermore, one of my students calculated that the next octave subdivision
that would have proportions similar to our division in twelve parts would
introduce 53rd tones. If you use 18 third tones, it would come close to the
same result, because 3 x 18 = 54. But then the half steps would disappear
completely. For quartertones, at the time, I used the following notation.

#P #P>

< and >

are mathematical symbols.

However, I do not believe that such a notation system will go far ; I
strongly believe that our future notation should be simpler.

I also have a different point of view about tonalties, and my music prooves
it. I think that what we can do with 113 tonalties could easily be done with
2, 3 or 4 : major=minor, whole tone and chromatic. Anyway, I've been trying
to get rid of the bounds of tonalty for a long time. My harmony doesn't use
tonal chords and melodies anymore.


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