Beethoven on the harp

Yeah I read a little more about it after I posted and that seems to be how it's viewed.thats funny about it not being written at the time.

Beethoven alive in the 1850's?? That would have been cool because we'd probably have a photograph of him. No, the goof is that Fur Elise wasnt *published* until later, meaning it wouldnt have been known to the public. Beethoven died in 1827

The way i saw it, the music in the parlor was suppose to make everything that happened previously bearable for the doctor. Like the moment he signs the papers and walks out, he could go back to his "safe heavens" where although he does not agree with slavery, he could turn a blind eye to it. But everything that happened to this point, got him too involved and attached in the issue. So i thing his reaction signified the change inside him. How later he reacted, although he could have been cool headed and adjusting, is just an extension of this change inside him.

Yeah I think it might also be a nod to Clockwork Orange. Alex gets brainwashed to hate violence through aversion therapy and as a side effect gets brainwashed to hate the one thing he loved: Classical music by Beethoven.

So maybe Schulz couldn't bear to hear Beethoven beautiful music played in this place in that place and on that occasion, so it wouldn't get tarnished.

EDIT: Haha of course I'm actually not the first to notice this: https://www.google.com/search?q=django+unchained+Clockwork+Orange

In my opinion, it is actually very important that it was a German composer.
I think that your explanation about the juxtaposition is totally on point, but in my opinion, it should be expanded.

Throughout the movie, Schulz shows a pride in being an enlightened German. You have to consider German history for this. At the time the movie takes place, that is in the 1850s, the German Reich did not exist yet, there was a strong sense of nationalism, but it was, pardoxically, actially a very leftist idea. The people of Germany wanted to unite the country, but the revolution of 1848 had failed. It would take another 20 years until all the small German states would be united and form the Deutsche Reich, but this time, the unification was done from the top, and only then, when the Emperor was established, did nationalism take on a very right wing turn.

So, in the 1850s, when Schulz takes pride in being German, he is actually expressing a rather positive form of pride. At that time, German artists, scientists and thinkers were at the top of the game.
Schulz is taking a very special form of pride in being enlightened and viewing all people as equal, by which he refers to German enlightenment, especially Kant. By going to the United States, he has entered a country which in theory is built on ideas of enlightenment, but he realizes that in reality most of the citizens do not live by these standards. So he is holding the flag of the enlightened German very high.

When he hears the woman play Beethoven, he is enraged by the juxtaposition that you have pointed out, but also disgusted by the idea that a composer who truly comes from the age of enlightenment could be played at such a barbaric place where a barbaric act such as selling a human being can take place (and many other barbaric acts towards human beings).

In this respect, I think it is very important that it is Beethoven who is being played. The fact that "Für Elise" had not been published at the time was probably known by Tarantino. But I guess it is the only piece by Beethoven that is simultaneously automatically identified by everyone as being a Beethoven composition and that can be played on a harp and instantly recognized. Also, it has the advatage of containing a simple motive that can be pllayed ad nauseam and I think the ennerving effect of this is carried over from Schulz to the viewer.

Oh yes! I immediately thought of that too!

That could be it. Mostly.

Agreed.