Stories about people's Für Elise experiences
From baby lullaby to newfound inspiration
This story was submitted by Marshella Merritt and was added around February 2008.
Though I can't recall specifically where and when I was first introduced to Fur Elise, I can relate the story of my 7 year old son's first introduction to it. This was just this past week when I assembled a piece of baby equipment for my soon to be born baby girl. I purchased a Graco "Sweet Peace" infant soother - much like a baby swing, only it sort of rotates around a curve in motion while soothing music plays. Anyway, it come pre-programmed with various classical and non classical soothing music samples, nature sounds, etc. The sound quality is quite good, and while we were exploring the various sound features of the device, my soon to be "big brother" 7 yr old, Marshall, first heard Fur Elise. His interest was peaked immediately! My husband and I were delighted that he was taken with this piece - we both love to hear it as well, although we were not so familiar with it as to be able to name the composer and title! It just sounded very familiar, and knew it was a popular classic by one of the great composers. Fortunately, my son happens to be taking piano lessons once per week and just this afternoon, when the instructor came to our home, she identified the song for us! And she was able to play some of it for us on our piano, as well as write down the first several notes for my son to practice. My son's interest in learning the piano has been waning a bit lately, and we're so hoping that his appreciation for Fur Elise will keep him inspired to keep playing.