Haydn’s Strategy
In 1770, Haydn was very ill with a malignant fever, and during his convalescence his physician strictly forbade his doing any work or touching the piano. Soon after, Haydn’s wife went to church, but before going impressed on the maid the necessity of watching her master closely so that he could not get at the piano. Haydn pretended not to have heard a word of this order, but his wife had hardly left the house, when he sent the maid on an errand. He hurried to the piano, and at the first touch the whole idea of a sonata came to him. The first part was finished while his wife was at church. When he heard her returning, he quickly went back to bed and finished it there.