To: Dr. Ross
From: Daniel Vlaicu
Re: Research Proposal

Dear Dr. Ross,

My topic is going to be the effect of Ludwig Van Beethoven had on classical music during1817-1827.

The information that I have been able to gather about Ludwig Van Beethoven is so fascinating.  He was such an interesting person.  Even though he died at a young age and was deaf at the time of his death.  The most brilliant pieces that he ever composed were during the period when he was deaf.  This is the reason I picked this time period.  I think this will be very interesting to research and find out interesting things about his life.  The reason I picked this topic is because I am some what of a musician and the life of composers has always fascinated me.  I also picked Beethoven because many people know who he is and are familiar with at least a couple of his works.  I have not been able to interview any people yet to see what they think about classical music and Beethoven but when I will find a classical music lover I will be sure to interview them.

I have been able to gather information about Beethoven mainly concerning his life, the period when he composed, what he composed, and some other little facts about his life.  The reason I think this is going to be a philosophical and artistic issue about knowledge, art, and power is because some scholars believe (from my research) that Beethoven bridged the gap between the classical and Romantic periods.  And this would be an interesting point of view to research and see how exactly he did that and find out what people thought about his work during the time he was a live.

The topic I have chosen is going to be an exciting and fun research project for me to do.  I like to do research on stuff that I am interested in.  Of course I still have a lot of work to do,  I still need to find people to talk to and people to interview.  I still need to do research on the time period of when Beethoven lived so that I can see how he lived and how people thought during that time period.  And I also need to find out more about him and his works that he composed and what inspired him to do such wonderful masterpieces.  The work that I need to do is plenty and I think that I will try to do a little bit of it every week, so that I will not get stuck at the end and I need to finish the whole project in one week.  I think that if I plan my time wisely and I do a little bit of research every single week for at least a couple of hours I will have plenty of time to finish the project.

So far during my research I have not run into any problems.  Or issues that I think are problems.  But of course I have not gotten to deep into my research yet so there is still plenty of time to run into problems.  I think this is a great project so far.  If the students find a great topic that they are really interested in and will catch there attention like my topic did to me, I think everyone is going to do a great job and I think you will be satisfied with our work.  I hope that I will as enthusiastic about this project at the end as I am right now.  Because it seems awesome right now, and hopefully by the end of the term I will know a lot more about Beethoven and about Knowledge, Art, and Power.