Many, many years ago, in the year of, let's say 1796, some Classical-era ComposerBirds were having a banner day.

It was a beautiful spring day, as is usually the case for banner days for ComposerBirds. The grass was green and succulent, the worms were fat and juicy - and thanks to a wonderful spring rain the day before, also squirming along the ground and ripe for the pickin'. As you would expect, there were no such things as BieberBirds (lucky victorian-era people), JacksonBirds, GibbsBirds, or even CageBirds. But as you can imagine, BachBirds, BeethovenBirds, and MozartBirds were all the rage, along with a few other well and lesser known composers.

Of course, ComposerBirds are fairly good at keeping up with musical trends. But not many know they can also set them!

On this fine day, the castle was entertaining some fairly high-profile guests. The ComposerBirds did not know this, though, for if they did, they might have all collectively fainted.

All the birds were sitting in trees, or on the ground, or flying around, chittering, chirping, and singing happily, when one solitary bird went quiet. She thought for a moment, and then, loudly and clearly, uttered the following four note phrase:

DA DA DA DUMMMMMM

Then she thought for another moment, went up a step, and did the same thing again.

DA DA DA DUMMMMMM

All of the other birds went quiet, and turned to look at her, for this was a musical motif that had never been uttered before.

Undaunted, she tried again.

DA DA DA DUMMMMMMM DA DA DA DUMMMMMMM

The other birds scooted closer. What was this divine music they were hearing?

After a few iterations of repeating, the forest went quiet. Then, with the raising of a wing, every single ComposerBird in the area, in perfect unison, repeated the phrase.

DA DA DA DUMMMMMMM DA DA DA DUMMMMMMMMMM

-CC-

As it happened one of the special guests in the castle was just wrapping up a meeting with the current headmaster, Basil Fronsac. There was some thought of installing a musical patronage into the castle, and he had invited some high profile musicians to get their input. Perhaps one of them would even be interested in Hogwarts being a patron!

As they walked outside, all of the ComposerBirds were completely quiet, when every single one, in unison, said:

DA DA DA DUMMMMMMMM DA DA DA DUMMMMMMMMMM

One of the special guests stopped and stared at the group of birds in wonder, and they stared back.

"Das! Das ist es!", he shouted. "Das ist das Motiv! Fuer meine Symphonie! Danke, Danke, mein schoen Fluegeleinen!"

The ComposerBird flew down and landed next to the man. She started at him curiously. Suddenly, recognition struck, and with a shocked tweet, every single ComposerBird in the area came over and mobbed him, tweeting "Fuer Elise", the "Pathetique" sonata, and a whole bunch of other musical phrases. It was hours before he managed to detach himself enough to leave for home, and it took days for them to start singing Mozart again.

For yes, my bird-loving friends, this is the story of how Ludwig Van Beethoven got the idea for his Symphony #5.

And the story of how one particular ComposerBird was treated as royalty by every other bird until she died.