Humanity

A Birthday gift for my uncle

Mr. Van Hagen,

I’m standing here before you requesting a great composer to compose birthday music for my uncle for his 60th birthday party. My uncle is a huge fan of these composers you represent, and recently I found out the he is losing his hearing and has become quite depressed. I would like for him to hear music from his favorite composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Mozart, or Ludwig Van Beethoven before he goes totally deaf. He loves the way Joseph Hayden also known as “Father of the Symphony” developed larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs. He enjoys the humor is Haydn’s music and also the fact that Haydn is known for modern symphony with four movements including a 'minuet' and a slow movement. My uncle always talks about how Haydn refined an unbelievable 83 string quartets, in addition to numerous string and piano trios. Haydn’s opera's, chamber music and symphonies, attest a playful and original imagination with the ability to blend stagnant folkloric music as well as mysterious color within the classical style. Simply put “brilliant”

Another composer my uncle enjoys listening to is Wolfgang Mozart. Mozart wrote his first original composition at age six, a child prodigy also the greatest musical genius of the classical era. Mozart wrote some of the most important masterpieces of this era, including symphonies, operas, string quartets and piano music. Mozart is one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music.

Last but not least is Ludwig Van Beethoven a key figure in the transition from the Classical to the Romantic era. Beethoven is a ground breaking composer with nine great symphonies and even imitated by other composers. My uncle loves the fact that Beethoven didn’t immediately set out to establish himself as a composer, but rather devoted himself to study and performance.

The Appeal

Of these great composers I would like to request Beethoven to...