Beethoven’s choice of key for this work, F minor, is unusual as most keyboard compositions at the time were aimed at the keen, privileged amateur pianists and more accessible keys were preferred.  Additionally, as contemporary keyboard instruments were not tuned to the ‘well-tempered’ standards of today, the key of F minor may well have sounded slightly bizarre.

“Marionettes were a teaching tool that she could use to communicate teaching concepts, but also as the framework of a year-long project where her students learned all different kinds of things—language arts, music, electrical engineering, color theory, history of theater, design,” Walz said. “At the end of the year, the class would produce a version of Alice in Wonderland.”

“You’ve got to stick your neck out a little,” says Phelps. “Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t.”