Schoenberg

* In discussing the great musical works of the last century, Thomas Kittredge (letter, Jan. 10) quite properly cites Stravinsky’s debt to Schoenberg. What did Schoenberg himself think of his own atonal, demanding compositions? An answer is found in Joan Peyser’s biography of Leonard Bernstein. She writes, on Page 48, Schoenberg “ . . . told friends that his greatest wish was to write tunes like Tchaikovsky, that people would whistle while leaving the hall.”

SAM WOODS

Los Angeles