Happy 245th Birthday to Ludwig van Beethoven

I grew up seeing Schroeder playing glorious music with his statue of Ludwig van Beethoven perched upon his toy piano. I always wondered, when I was a kid, how he managed to get such sound and so many octaves from the keyboard of a small, toy piano. I still wonder that today.

Schroeder, when possible, has this great statue of Beethoven
that he places at the back of his toy piano. 

Then again, I've also wondered how Beethoven was able to get such glorious music out of his head and onto paper when he was deaf and unable to hear a single note? The fact that our world had produced genius of this caliber through the years serves to offer me hope, even as we turn our backs on one another and slaughter innocents. Beethoven's time was also filled with war. I'm not sure if any time of our entire history as a species has managed to live more than a single generation without war. It is an impossible dream.

Single-minded devotion from Schroeder makes Beethoven the answer
to everything. I don't think he was wrong. There's just something about Beethoven
that moves the soul. 

Today I'm going to take some time out to listen to Beethoven, because his music speaks to my soul and says "We can be better - in fact, we can be great!" I'm raising a virtual glass to the composer who will always be my number one - Ludwig van Beethoven.

Happy Birthday, Ludwig van Beethoven. 

I'm sending all of you off to play with the Google headpiece of Ludwig van Beethoven's journey to the concert hall. It's a fun trip through pieces of his music and very easy if you are familiar with his best-known scores. Go to Google now, put on your headphones, click and play. Happy Thursday!