Haydn’s assistant recorded the composer’s routine in the Vienna suburb of Gumpendorf, where he spent his last decade:
In the summer, he always rose at 6.30 am. His first task was to shave, which he did himself until he was seventy-three. After shaving he completed dressing. If a pupil had arrived, he made him play his piece while the composer dressed. Mistakes were promptly corrected and a new piece for practicing was given to him. Perhaps an hour and a half would be spent in this way. Precisely at 8.0 o’clock, breakfast was taken. Immediately afterwards, he would sit at the piano and improvise, making sketches of compositions until 11.30 am. Then he received visitors or paid calls or went for a walk until 1.30 pm. Between 2.0 and 3.0 pm he dined, after which he either attended to domestic matters or returned to his music. Then he took the sketches he had made in the morning and scored them. In the evening at 8.0 pm he would go out, returning home at 9.0 pm to orchestrate or read a book until 10.0 o’clock. At 10 he had a supper of bread and wine; he made it a rule never to eat an evening meal of anything but bread and wine, except when he was invited out. At half past eleven he went to bed, in old age even later.
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