Composition in Letter and Song: Ode to Beethoven

This lesson is designed to help students gain understanding of Beethoven and his music. We will research Beethoven’s life and music and will compose a letter to him. We will discuss how Beethoven used instrumentation or timbre, dynamics and tempo, and other elements of music to evoke a large variety of emotions for those listening to his music. We will then use the book Sing My Song: A Kid’s Guide to Songwriting by Steve Seskin, to work collaboratively to compose a song with a message that we feel is important to our listeners.