Yet he always tried to write each day a few bars of music.

Often in this way he evolved a theme for which he afterward found a use.

In looking over a sketch-book in the summer he would run across something he liked, and the idea would expand into a matured work.
His sketch-books are full of all kinds of random and fugitive material--half-finished fugues, canons, piano pieces, songs, single themes.

Undoubtedly this habit of work had its value when he came to the leisurely months of summer; for he did not then have to go through a period of technical "warming up." There were many days when he did not write a note, but he always intended to, and usually did.

When he was absorbed in a particular composition he kept at it, almost night and day, save for the hours he always tried to spend in the open air, and two hours in the evening when, no matter how late it might be, he sat quietly with his wife, reading or talking, smoking, and, in earlier days, enjoying a glass of beer and some food.