210.—THE MANUAL LABOR OF COMPOSITION.
It is hard for us to realize the amount of laborious writing and copying there is for a composer to do before he has his manuscript ready for the printer. The manual labor necessary is enough to deter one from composition, even were he gifted with the composing ability. A good way for the student to appreciate this is to try copying, in a clear, exact hand, a few pages of complicated music, or, better still, transposing a few pieces from one key into another.
Beethoven, although averse to details, and though not as profuse with his signs of expression and nuance as some composers, has given us, in his manuscripts, an example of care and exactness, as well as of deep thought and continued study.
In his overture in C, Op. 115 (the manuscript of which, by the way, he sold to a London publisher for £15), besides the labor of writing the mere notes, it was no inconsiderable task to properly indicate the dynamic effects intended. For instance, the sign sf. occurs in this score more than fifteen hundred times, and besides this there are hundreds of other signs such as p., piu., pp., f., ff., fff., sfp., sfpp., cres., dim., etc.
It means something besides God-given genius to be a great composer,—something more than the ability to improvise music. It means days and years of slavish toil.