I was 12 in 1969, and at 13 and 14 I had unrequited crushes on a couple of girls, which unfortunately aggravated some childhood depression I’d had even earlier. I didn't read the whole book but I enjoyed checking it out. Marek’s Beethoven: Biography of a Genius (Funk & Wagnall’s, 1969) when it was published or perhaps the following year. I took piano lessons, but somehow never managed the spontaneous, unpracticed skill of Schroeder. Eventually, I also found LPs of the fifth and seventh symphonies and some of his named sonatas. I wrote NBC to find out the title and got a letter back! Subsequently, I found a used recording of the symphony at our hometown library’s annual book sale. In those days, the Huntley-Brinkley evening news on NBC concluded with the scherzo from Beethoven’s Ninth. Thus inspired by a favorite comic strip, I liked certain Beethoven compositions when I was young. Of course, Schroeder also performed Beethoven sonatas and other works on his toy piano. Nearly every December 16, the story concerned Beethoven’s birthday and Schroeder’s celebration of it. When I was little, I loved the Peanuts comics and enjoyed getting paperback collections of the strips. He was baptized on December 17, 1770, and so his undocumented birthday is likely December 16, or perhaps December 15, given the fact that babies were usually baptized when they were a day or two old. The 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birthday is next December.
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