Beethoven and Mozart: Two Great Composers
             Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven are two of the most well know and respected composers of all time. Over one hundred and fifty years after their lives their music is still studied, enjoyed and respected. These two great composers had different styles of composing music, and performing.
             Mozart and Beethoven were both born with extremely rare gifts of musical ability and displayed them early on in life. Mozart was a child prodigy. By the age of five he was able to reproduce a melody played to him on the piano. He was also able to play the violin extremely well. It didn’t come quite as naturally to Beethoven. He was not the prodigy that Mozart was as a child. When Beethoven was born, Mozart was already a well know composer. His father forced him into practicing the piano for hours a day and punished whenever he made a mistake, hoping he would become the next Mozart. He also felt if he was to become good enough he could earn an income to help support the family.
             Neither Mozart nor Beethoven had good relationships with their fathers. Beethoven always resented his father for physically abusing him, and forcing him to practice for hours each day. Mozart’s father controlled every aspect of his life as a child and he did not want his father to have the same power, as he was becoming an adult. He never took his father’s advice about money, trusting people, or whom he should associate with (www.austria-tourism)
             Neither Beethoven nor Mozart had normal lives growing up. Both spent most of their childhood around adults. Mozart began traveling Vienna and the surrounding area when he was just six years old. His first public appearance was at the Salzburg University in September of 1761. However, Beethoven spent much of his youth practicing the piano under Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and his Uncle Franz Rovantini who taught Beethoven the violin. In the summer of 178...