There are a heck of a lot of composer birthday gifts that get published for the public, and that's because they're all pieces of music. I found this leaf lounging on the stacks at the BU and saw that it's not much more than an odd reharmonization of Happy Birthday to You, actually bothering to license the song to get this piece published. The copyrighting of Happy Birthday is one of the longest-standing and most glorious scams of the 20th century (aside from the mafia controlling olive oil), but I guess Heiss just had to shell out the dough to get his semi-joke to press. It is a really good piece, though, and its lack of a recording isn't adding to Heiss's fame any (what little of it there was). Also, today is my brother's birthday, so I'm putting this piece up, as well as my own performance, in tribute:
~PNK
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