Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Framework

At his house in Klin, according to his brother Modest, Tchaikovsky rose between seven and eight and spent an hour over tea, a cigarette and the Bible or Spinoza, then walked for about forty-five minutes. Around 9:30 he dealt with letters and proofs before sitting at the piano to compose until lunch. Any conversation at breakfast, or company on the morning walk, meant no composing that day. After lunch came the walk Modest called pedantic and superstitious: exactly two hours, in any weather, as if returning five minutes early would make him ill. He carried a notebook because most of his ideas came on these walks. Tea and the newspapers followed, then composing again from five to seven, then dinner, guests, cards, reading and duets. The week is a two-hour morning and a two-hour evening of creative work with two and a half hours of walking between them and an eight-hour night. The chart's evening runs to midnight, which is its estimate.