Hear the Music of the Peanuts Comic Strip
for the First Time On-line in
Schulz’s Beethoven: Schroeder’s Muse

New Online Exhibition opens on
Beethoven’s birthday, December 16th
www.americanbeethovensociety.org/schulzsbeethoven/

If you are a member of the media and would like to preview the site before is goes public on
December 16th, please contact Gina Huntsinger at (707) 284-1268 or gina@schulzmuseum.org.

December 4, 2009—Santa Rosa, CA.

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 it’s not just anyone’s 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 online exhibition devoted to Schulz’s Beethoven, Schroeder’s Muse that will premier on Beethoven’s birthday, December 16.

Schulz’s 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 online 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 online and the mounted exhibitions are joint projects of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and the Center for Beethoven Studies (CSU San José).

About the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center
The Charles M. Schulz Museum opened in August 2002 to fulfill its mission of preserving, displaying, and interpreting the art of Charles M. Schulz. The Museum carries out this mission through changing exhibitions and programming that build an understanding of cartoonists and cartoon art; illustrate the scope of Schulz’s multi-faceted career; communicate the stories, inspirations and influences of Charles Schulz; and celebrate the life of Charles Schulz and the Peanuts characters.

About the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San José State University
The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies opened in September 1985 to fulfill its mission of celebrating the music and humanitarian accomplishments of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). The Center is supported by SJSU and the members of the American Beethoven Society. The Center’s collections include original manuscripts, the largest collection of first editions of Beethoven’s music in the Western hemisphere, a historical keyboard collection including two original fortepianos from Beethoven’s lifetime, and hundreds of art works depicting the composer’s world.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES
Note: If you would like any of the images in this release at a higher resolution to print in a publication, contact Gina Huntsinger at gina@schulzmuseum.org.

Peanuts ~ March 20, 1969