Routines: Beethoven
"Beethoven's daily life was organized so as to maximize his creative productivity. He arose at daybreak, breakfasted, and went directly to his desk, where he normally worked - with occasional time out for a short walk - until midday. His dinner concluded, he generally took a long walk ('twice around the city,' according to Seyfried), which could occupy much of the afternoon. Toward nightfall he often repaired to a favorite tavern to meet with friends and read the newspapers. Evenings were typically spent in company, at the theater, or making music. He retired early, usually at ten o'clock, but would sometimes continue to write for many more hours through the night until a creating surge was exhausted.
He sketched musical ideas constantly, whether at home, on the street, in the tavern, lying on his side in a meadow, or perched in the crook of a branched tree. 'I always have a notebook. . .with me, and when an idea comes to me, I put it down at once,' he told Gerhard von Breuning, the son of his friend Stephan von Breuning. 'I even get up in the middle of the night when a though comes, because otherwise I might forget it.' He filled a number of large sketchbooks during his lifetime, and retained them for very occasional reference (and perhaps because he hesitated to discard any evidence of his creativity) until his death. . .
Beethoven's productivity was generally richer during the warmer months, which he spent, like most Viennese of means, in rural districts and spas outside the capital."
Beethoven
Maynard Solomon
A later routine here.
Other routines here.
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