By Matthew Kimel, Jon Xavier & Kyle Hansen

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany and lived the rest of his life in Vienna, Austria. He never once set foot in California.

But somehow, a lock of his hair made it to the Golden State. How could this have happened? More importantly, why did it end up in San Jose?

Patricia Stroh, curator of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, explains:

Although it was established in 1983, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies originally opened in 1985 with the mission to "celebrate the ideals and achievements of Ludwig van Beethoven."

The museum is the largest research center in the Western Hemisphere dedicated exclusively to Beethoven. It is, in fact, the only one. In order to find a more comprehensive Beethoven collection one, would have to travel to Europe.

Stroh, who took the job in 1986 after completing graduate studies to become a music librarian, said the center has over 250 first editions of Beethoven's work and 2,000 additional editions that were published during Beethoven's lifetime.

The center also distributes The Beethoven Journal, a bi-annual publication, with a print run of approximately 1,000 per issue according to Stroh.

The journal, originally called The Beethoven Newsletter, was initiated in 1986 and has a core readership that consists of members of the American Beethoven Society.

The American Beethoven Society is a "support organization for the Beethoven center,"
Stroh said. "Their donations help us publish not only our journal but help us primarily with our acquisitions of buying" material for the collection. The society uses the center as its headquarters.

In 1991 the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies began creating the Beethoven Bibliography Database, which currently lists over 15,000 records of literature including books, scholarly journal articles, theses and newspaper articles.

The database has in-depth indexing so people can research obscure topics on Beethoven said Stroh. The bibliography will have approximately 20,000 entries in the future, Stroh added.

A small group made up of members of the American Beethoven Society bought a lock of Beethoven's hair in 1994 at Sotheby's in London. They paid a little over $7,000, and it was donated to the center. Today the lock, which was named after the chief investor, is worth over $100,000, said Stroh. This is due in part to all of the attention it has gotten recently with a book, a movie and an upcoming children's book focusing on its unique history.

The lock of hair is not the only piece of Beethoven that can be found in San Jose. The center acquired a long-term loan of two fragments of Beethoven's skull in 2005. Due to ethical issues, the fragments are not on display, Stroh said.

The center also houses a replica of Beethoven's life mask, which Stroh describes:

One of the highlights of the center is a sketch leaf original manuscript hand written by Beethoven. Beethoven's manuscripts can be sold for "well in the millions," said Stroh.

The massive collection also hosts seven letters written by the great composer, which Stroh said are worth about $100,000 each.

One of the letters is addressed to Beethoven's publisher and requests for simultaneous publication of Beethoven's music in both London and Vienna. Another letter, written to a friend of Beethoven, is related to a traumatic event in which Beethoven's nephew tried to commit suicide.

In the middle of the center there is a collection of keyboard instruments that display the progression of the instrument through Beethoven's lifetime.

Some of the instruments do not have enough keys to play his later work due to their lack of range of notes. Pianos in Beethoven's younger years only had 66 keys. Through his lifetime, keyboards were expanded to 78 keys. Modern pianos have 88 keys.

Included in the center's collection is a useable replication of a fortepiano, which the center commissioned a piano builder to make, Stroh said. Beethoven was a fine performer as well as a composer; he was well known for his improvisations throughout Vienna in his early career, Stroh said.

The center also acquired a Viennese piano that is representative of one he would have used in his later years. The Viennese piano has six pedals with some drum and cymbal effects.

Listen to a sample of Beethoven's music from incompetech.com:

Links:

Beethoven Center Web site

San Jose State University

Charles Schulz Museum

Schultz's Beethoven Exhibit

Beethoven's Hair

Other Beethoven sites

Beethoven Bibliography Database

American Beethoven Society

Beethoven at Auction

Upcoming events at the center:

On April 13, 2008 there will be a benefit concert for the Beethoven center’s acquisition fund with local pianist Jon Nakamatsu performing.

In August, the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa will display a special exhibit on Peanuts comics that feature Beethoven-themes. The exhibit is a collaboration between the Schultz museum and the Beethoven center and will be moved to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies in April, 2009, for display until the end of June.