In a Biography of Beethoven I Just Read, from Victor Niederhoffer
In a biography of Beethoven I just read it makes the point that he always had a big idea in mind whenever he wrote a piece. An idea that would live forever that "everyone would understand soon enough". Yet he planned his music in microscopic detail sometimes taking 5 years to get all the harmonies, rhythms, and melodies, into order, e.g. the [missa solemnis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_solemnis_%28Beethoven%29). He also was very good at the negotiations which he turned over to his brother or Schindler often selling the same piece 3 times to 3 separate publishers all of whom thought they had exclusives. What a great model for speculators for the new year.