THEIR FAVORITE SURROUNDINGS FOR COMPOSITION

Composers have always had wildly different “work setups.” Beethoven scribbled ideas in cafés and taverns, but also composed while walking, even under a famous oak near Vienna. Mozart loved company and procrastinated on the *writing* because the music was already finished in his head; Schubert could draft melodies in the noise of a tavern. Haydn disappeared into a tiny attic to work; Rossini wrote in bed to stay warm (and once rewrote a duet rather than pick up the page he dropped). Mendelssohn could chat and orchestrate at full speed; Wagner demanded total silence—and sometimes even dressed for the period he was composing.