Schroeder (Peanuts)

Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular. Schroeder is also the catcher on Charlie Brown's baseball team, though he is always seen walking back to the mound with the baseball, never throwing it—admitting in one strip he didn't want the other team to discover his lack of ability. He is also the object of the unrequited infatuation of Lucy van Pelt, who constantly leans on Schroeder's piano, much to Schroeder's annoyance. Charlie Brown, Frieda and Snoopy are also occasionally depicted as leaning on Schroeder's piano.

After Linus, Schroeder is probably Charlie Brown's closest friend; he once angrily berated Violet for giving Charlie Brown a used valentine well after Valentine's Day had come and gone, only to be undercut when Charlie Brown eagerly accepted it. Schroeder also joined Linus in dressing down the girls (Lucy, Patty, Violet and Frieda) and Snoopy in Charlie Brown's All-Stars, when it was discovered Charlie Brown wouldn't sacrifice the girls and Snoopy just to get uniforms for the baseball team. He also is one of the few players who has any respect for Charlie Brown as a manager; though he is as capable of ire at Charlie Brown's poor performance as anyone else, such instances are few and far between. In one game, when Frieda desperately asked Schroeder "Wouldn't you like just once to see Charlie Brown hit that ball?", Schroeder's calm reply was "No, I am not prepared to have the world come to an end".

Schroeder was voted an honorary member of the Epsilon Iota chapter at Florida State University of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, the oldest and largest music fraternity in the world. A stained glass window in New York's Buffalo Westminster Presbyterian Church honoring Albert Schweitzer has a corner showing him playing his toy piano. In honor of Schroeder's passion for Beethoven, the Charles M. Schulz Museum (Santa Rosa) and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies announced the launching in December 2009 of a permanent online exhibit of 60 of the 300 Schulz's cartoons that involve Schroeder and Beethoven: "Schulz's Beethoven, Schroeder's Muse" (accessible through the website www.americanbeethovensociety.org).

Appearance
Schroeder has short blond hair. He almost always wears a striped shirt and either black or blue shorts. He is commonly seen playing his toy piano. In television and motion pictures his piano sounds like a grand piano when played.

History
Schroeder was introduced as a baby on May 30, 1951, but he aged up to the maturity level of the other characters over the next three years. In his initial appearance on the strip Patty refers to him as a next-door neighbor. His address is 1770 James Street, easy to remember for him because the number is Beethoven's birth year. Schroeder's birthday was in 1954 revealed to be January 18. He initially had no notable characteristics, but soon Schulz had the idea to incorporate his daughter Meredith's toy piano into the strip. He decided to give it to the newest character, and thus the character as he is known to millions of fans was born. The origin of his name can be found in Schulz's 1975 book Peanuts Jubilee: "Schroeder was named after a young boy with whom I used to caddy at Highland Park golf course in St. Paul. I don't recall ever knowing his first name, but just 'Schroeder' seemed right for the character in the script, even before he became the great musician he now is."

From his first appearance at the piano on September 24, 1951, Schroeder has played classical pieces of virtuoso level, as depicted by Schulz's transcription of sheet music onto the panel (a process that the cartoonist described as "extremely tedious"). The first piece Schroeder played was Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G minor. Schroeder is often found playing selections from a sonata by Beethoven, his favorite composer. As revealed in one strip wherein Lucy took his bust of Beethoven and smashed it, he has an entire closetful of Beethoven busts. It was also found that he has an entire closetful of pianos. Every year, Schroeder marks December 16, the birthday of his hero. Schulz once revealed that he had originally planned to depict Johannes Brahms (whom Schulz identified as his own favourite composer) as Schroeder's idol, but decided that Beethoven simply sounded "funnier." He was once in shock when he forgot Beethoven's birthday. When Charlie Brown's baseball team is required to have a sponsor to play games, Schroeder's sponsor is Beethoven. In the early strips Schroeder also played other composers. In one strip, Lucy implies that his idolization of Beethoven is excessive, asking him what he thinks of other classical composers such as Schubert, Brahms, Bach, and Chopin. Schroeder simply replies, "They were great composers too," and continues to play Beethoven. On another occasion, Lucy remarks to Schroeder "Beethoven wasn't so great." Irritated, Schroeder asks Lucy to explain her comment. Lucy replies, "You've never seen his face on a bubblegum card, have you?" Dialogue from at least one strip suggests that Schroeder has absolute pitch.

Schroeder is usually depicted sitting at his toy piano, able to pound out multi-octave selections of music, despite the fact that such pianos have a very small range (for instance, and as a running joke, the black keys are merely painted on to the white keys). Charlie Brown tried to get him to play a real piano and young Schroeder burst into tears, intimidated by its size. Violet later attempts to do the same thing, but Schroeder again can't do it. Peppermint Patty once referred to Schroeder as a miniature Leonard Bernstein after she heard him whistling a Classical piece during a ball game in a series of strips where she took over management of Charlie Brown's baseball team.

Relationship with Lucy van Pelt
Schroeder's other distinguishing mark as a character is his constant refusal of Lucy's love. Lucy is infatuated with Schroeder, and frequently lounges against his piano while he is playing, professing her love for him. However, Beethoven was a lifelong bachelor, and Schroeder feels he must emulate every aspect of his idol's life, even if it is insinuated that he reciprocates Lucy's feelings. In a story arc where she and the rest of her family have moved out of town (also seen in the TV special Is This Goodbye), Schroeder becomes frustrated with his music and mutters disbelievingly that he misses her, realizing that, despite his animosity towards her, Lucy has unwittingly become Schroeder's muse and he cannot play without her (he parodies Henry Higgins by saying, "Don't tell me I've grown accustomed to THAT face!"). Sometimes, he gets so annoyed with Lucy that he outright yanks the piano out from underneath her to get her away from him which became a running gag; on one occasion both Lucy and Frieda lounge on Schroeder's piano, until he yanks it from beneath them both after Frieda mistakenly thinks Beethoven is a drink rather than a composer. However, he does allow Charlie Brown to lounge against the piano, because of their solid friendship. The question of how the unwanted Lucy nevertheless keeps getting into Schroeder's house is never addressed; presumably Schroeder's unseen parents do not take his dislike for her very seriously.

Lucy regularly vexes and perplexes Schroeder with speculations about what their lives would be like if they were married. On one occasion, she rattles off a list of all the luxuries she would need to maintain a high-society lifestyle, before asking Schroeder whether pianists make much money; when he replies that it depends on how much they practice, she encourages him to keep practising. Her suggestions that he might "insist on playing in some cheap little" bar, or that she would make him practice in the basement upset him, and several of her fantasies of their married life seem bizarrely pessimistic: Lucy has imagined that Schroeder could become a famous concert pianist who breaks both arms skiing, leaving them so destitute that she has to take in laundry to support them; on another occasion remarked that, if they married and Schroeder's music failed to earn money, she would sell his piano to buy saucepans. On both occasions, Schroeder got up and walked away from his piano in bewilderment.

It should be noted he rarely tells Lucy to go away as long as she is quiet. He is usually quite content to let her stay there, until she starts annoying him. Most times he is happy to answer her questions, but unfortunately they usually turn into themes that annoy him, e.g., about them having a relationship, stupid questions about music, etc. He seems to like informing her about Beethoven, although she usually replies with silly answers. It seems he at least tolerates her coming over and it's more her annoying questions that bother him, rather than her actual presence.

Once, he appears as Lucy's psychiatric partner, and took her place when she was not available. When Charlie Brown poured out his troubles, Schroeder said simply, "Go home and listen to a Brahms piano quartet...Five cents, please!" Later, Charlie Brown asked Lucy, "Just how carefully do you screen these assistants of yours?"

Another time he appeared as a patient. He told Lucy about how Beethoven wrote all the great symphonies, but as he was deaf, he never got to hear them and every time he thinks about it, it makes him sad. Lucy simply replies with, "Try not to think about it, five cents, please!" After he leaves, she remarks, "Some cases are relatively simple".

The only times Schroeder accepted a gift from Lucy was when she gave him a sketch of Beethoven—she was then shocked to find he already had a gigantic wall-size portrait of Beethoven hanging in his room, and when Lucy gave him Elton John glasses. He also accepted a flower from her after Lucy showed it to him and explained that accepting a flower can mean love, or "just to keep from hurting the other person's feelings." Lucy promptly yanks it back and kicks it away after that response.

In reaction to her constant advances, Schroeder has been known to occasionally humor her, somewhat goodnaturedly. He gave her a Valentine after confirming that he didn't have to love her to give her one, just "barely being able to tolerate her" was fine. Schroeder demonstrates the same fondly teasing tone toward Lucy in the December 14, 1975 Sunday strip, whispering a flirtatious comments to her while she pretends to be asleep on his piano. He addresses her as "pretty girl", and says "I think you're kind of cute! You really fascinate me!" He ends his string of flirtatious remarks with "I guess I love everything about you... Sweet baby!" Lucy cannot help but grin, to which Schroeder exclaims, "Ha! I knew you weren't asleep!" Lucy responds with "Rats!"

Schroeder has only been known to kiss Lucy on the cheek once. Once when Lucy gives Schroeder a cupcake on Beethoven's birthday, he kisses her on the cheek, but when Lucy turns around she sees Snoopy immediately next to her. Thinking that it was he that kissed her, she runs away screaming, while Schroeder calls for her to come back.

Relationship with Charlie Brown
For the most part, Schroeder and Charlie Brown were the best of friends, with the exception of one argument from the mid-1950s (when the two had more of a rivalry going) where Charlie Brown insulted his "yellow hair" and "plink, plink, plink all day long [on his piano]" and Schroeder countered with a barb at Charlie's coonskin cap and "round head." Schroeder was the catcher on Charlie Brown's baseball team and, during conferences on the pitcher's mound, the two would engage in unusual conversations, mostly about Beethoven and hand signals (one finger means..., two fingers means..., etc.). He would also encourage Charlie during a baseball game often, whereas the rest of the team would say, "Don't let us down by showing up!" In the animated cartoon, he limits Charlie Brown to only two pitches, a high and low Straightball.

Schroeder's most significant act of friendship, however, came in Be My Valentine. When Violet offers Charlie Brown one of her used Valentine cards (since Charlie received no Valentines the previous day at his school's party), Schroeder thoroughly chastises her, Frieda, Lucy and Sally for their disregard for his feelings and their selfish motive of relieving their own personal guilt. Charlie Brown, however, tells the girls not to listen to him and accepts the card, although he expressed appreciation for Schroeder's gesture.

Charlie Brown is one of the few people Schroeder will allow to lounge against his piano, as he and Charlie Brown are good friends, and knows that Charlie Brown respects his love of Beethoven. In fact, when they were younger, Charlie Brown would read Schroeder the story about Beethoven's life. Charlie Brown was also the one that introduced Schroeder to the piano. Generally he also does not have a problem with Snoopy lounging against his piano until, moved by the music, Snoopy generally winds up dancing on top of the piano much to Schroeder's annoyance.

Schroeder's piano
The piano's capability is illustrated in 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas. Lucy asks Schroeder to play "Jingle Bells". Schroeder plays it in the style of a conventional piano, then manages to generate the warm tones of a Hammond organ, but Lucy cannot recognize the tune until the now-irritated Schroeder plays it, in a high register with one finger, in the tones of a normal toy piano. This is the only time in the history of the television specials that his toy piano ever actually sounds like a toy piano. In 1966's It's the Great Pumpkin, Schroeder accommodated Snoopy (who was dressed in his World War I Flying Ace outfit) by playing a brief medley of World War I songs (both peppy ones and very sad depressing ones) at Violet's Halloween Party; such as "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag", "Roses of Picardy", and others.

Schroeder is normally a very passive character, content to play his music, but he can be angered quite easily, especially if his music or his idol Beethoven are insulted. In one short, Lucy points out to him the woefully inadequate range of a toy piano; an angry Schroeder yanks it out from under her, causing her to conk her head on the floor. This became a frequent running gag in the strip's later years. In 1971's Play It Again Charlie Brown, Lucy asked if pianists make a lot of money, and Schroeder flew into a rage: "Who cares about money?!  This is art, you blockhead!  This is great music I'm playing, and playing great music is an art!  Do you hear me?  An art!  Art!  Art!  Art!  Art!  Art!" (the last five words punctuated by slamming his hands against his piano). These instances mark the few occasions when any character successfully stand up to the notoriously aggressive Lucy. However, when Lucy asks the same question in the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Schroeder admits: "Some do, if they practice real hard, I guess." In the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Lucy tells Schroeder that Beethoven "wasn't so great". When Schroeder defensively demands an explanation, Lucy replies that Beethoven has never been on a bubble gum card and that one cannot be considered great without appearing on one.

The musical notes Schroeder plays also seem to have substance; characters are able to touch them as they appear in the air. Snoopy, for example, once decorated a Christmas tree using a handful of them, and has on at least one occasion been seen dancing atop the musical staff containing the notes.

Lucy has often spoken of getting Schroeder to give up his piano, such as getting him to realize that married life has financial hardships and he may have to sell his piano in order to buy her a good set of saucepans. On two occasions, Lucy went so far as to destroy Schroeder's piano in an attempt to be rid of the "competition" for his affection, but both attempts failed:


 * In a series of strips from January 1969, Lucy threw the piano into a tree, which was later discovered to be none other than a dreaded Kite-Eating Tree, which evidently didn't distinguish between kites and toy pianos. When Schroeder ordered a replacement, Charlie Brown asked if his piano was covered by insurance, to which Schroeder replied, "How do you explain to the insurance company that your piano was eaten by a tree?".


 * In her second attempt, from an October 1974 strip series, Lucy threw the piano into the sewer, from which Charlie Brown and Schroeder attempted to retrieve it. Schroeder was able to reach it, but it was stuck, and then when it started raining heavily the piano was washed out to sea.

Lucy once "accidentally" washed his piano and threw it in the dryer, thus having the piano shrink, leaving Schroeder horrified.

In one strip it was revealed that Schroeder gets his pianos from the Ace Piano Company, this was also mentioned in an episode of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show.

Portrayals

 * Chris Doran first voiced Schroeder in animation, in 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas. Various actors since then have portrayed Schroeder including Todd Barbee, who also voiced Charlie Brown from 1973 to 1974.
 * The musical You're a Good Man featured Skip Hinnant as Schroeder in the 1967 original off-Broadway Production, and Stanley Wayne Mathis in the 1999 Broadway Revival.
 * Schroeder is alluded to in the play Dog Sees God as "Beethoven".

In other media

 * The Green Music Center at Sonoma State University has a recital hall named after the character due to Jeannie and Charles M. Schulz's contributions to the university and ties to the community.
 * An album of classical piano music titled Schroeder's Greatest Hits has been released by RCA Victor. Ostensibly an album of piano music recorded by Schoeder himself, the recording consists of many of the solo piano works that Schroeder has been known to play over the years. Primarily, Beethoven, but also Chopin, Brahms, and Bach are represented.
 * In the South Park episode "A Very Crappy Christmas" he appears as the piano player for the Christmas recording session. He makes another appearance in the South Park episode "Probably" as the organist at Cartman's "children's church". An additional appearance was as the piano player in "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" in tryouts for the fifth member of Cartman's boy band.
 * According to the biographical book Schulz And Peanuts by David Michaelis, Schroeder's contentious relationship with Lucy was based on Charles M. Schulz's real life relationship with his first wife.
 * Schulz told an anecdote wherein he visited the grave of Beethoven and placed a Snoopy pin on it. A little girl looked at him and asked "Wo ist Schroeder?" ("Where's Schroeder?").  He went back to his car, found a Schroeder pin and placed it on the grave instead.
 * Schroeder appears on Family Guy episode "Mother Tucker," alongside Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty and others, in a cutaway gag.
 * Both Schroeder and Charles Schulz are honorary brothers of the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.