Musicians are often surprised to find that they can actually play the music notes floating above Schroeder’s toy piano in the Peanuts comic strip, and they are even more amazed to learn that its not just anyones music Schroeder is playing-the compositions were created by none other than his idol, Ludwig van Beethoven!
Now visitors anywhere in the world can hear the Beethoven excerpts that Schroeder plays in the Peanuts comic strip with a new on-line exhibition devoted to Schulz’ Beethoven, Schroeder’s Muse that will premier on Beethoven’s birthday, December 16.
Schulz’ Beethoven, Schroeder’s Muse features 60 cartoons that include meticulously drawn music from Beethoven’s piano sonatas complemented with manuscripts, first editions, and artwork from the rich collections of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San José State University. Visitors to the on-line exhibition can listen to the music, travel to other websites to enrich their understanding of the strips, and explore cartoon and music history.
Excerpts from the complete recordings of Beethoven’s sonatas are performed by internationally-renowned pianist Craig Sheppard, Professor of Piano at the University of Washington in Seattle.
An earlier version of the exhibition was mounted at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa from August 16, 2008 through January 26, 2009, and from May 1 through July 31, 2009, in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San José State University. Both the on-line and the mounted exhibitions are joint projects of The Charles M. Schulz Museum and the Center for Beethoven Studies (San José, CA).
If you are part of the media and would like high resolution or web images for publication in print, on-line or broadcast, please contact Gina Huntsinger at (707) 284-1268.
And to think none of this would have happened if Schulz, with his great sense of humor, hadn’t understood that Beethoven was a funnier name than Brahms, the composer he apparently preferred.