The Symphony No. 37 in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

Hob. The Hoboken catalogue is a catalogue of the musical compositions by Joseph Haydn compiled by Anthony van Hoboken. It is intended to cover the composer's entire oeuvre and includes over 750 entries. Its full title in the original German is ''Joseph ...

I/37, is a

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

by Franz Joseph Haydn. The numbering is completely misleading, as it is clearly one of Haydn's earliest symphonies. A copy of the score found at Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, is dated 1758. It can be presumed it was written for the orchestra of

Count Morzin Count Morzin (Karl Joseph, Count Morzin) was an aristocrat of the Holy Roman Empire during the 18th century. He is remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn as his Kapellmeister, or music director. The first few of Ha ...

, in which Haydn was employed untilBrown, A. Peter, ''The Symphonic Repertoire'' (Volume 2). Indiana University Press (), pp. 42–43 (2002). February 1761. This symphony is a candidate for the first one he ever had written, if his Symphony No. 1 was not indeed his first symphony.

Movements

The work is scored for two oboes,

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

, two horns, trumpets, timpani and strings with continuo. It is possible the trumpet and timpani parts were added later. The work is in four movements: #

Presto Presto may refer to: Computing * Presto (browser engine), an engine previously used in the Opera web browser * Presto (operating system), a Linux-based OS by Xandros * Presto (SQL query engine), a distributed query engine * Presto (animation s ...

(

, 168 bars, ) # Menuet e Trio (C major and C minor (Trio), 24 bars and 26 bars (Trio), # Andante, C minor, 71 bars, #Presto, C major, 82 bars, The key organization limited to C major and C minor in the four movements indicates perhaps a reliance on the Baroque suites as a guide for tonal organization of the movements, the influence of the first three symphonies by

C.P.E. Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

,The C.P.E. Bach Symphony in G major, H.648 of 1741 has movements in G major, G minor, and G major. See https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_in_G_major%2C_H.648_(Bach%2C_Carl_Philipp_Emanuel). or an early simplicity of tonal language. (Haydn was in his mid-20s at the composition of this symphony.)

First Movement

Similarities have been drawn between the opening movement and the finale to

Georg von Reutter Johann Adam Joseph Karl Georg Reutter, during his life known as Georg Reutter the Younger (6 April 1708 – 11 March 1772) was an Austrian composer.Karl Geiringer, ''Haydn: A Creative Life in Music'', 1982, p. 19: "There were two Viennese comp ...

's ''Servizio di tavola'' in C major from 1757. The two knew each other because Reutter was the director of music in St. Stephen's Cathedral where Haydn sang as a child.

Second Movement

The work is one of the few symphonies of the Classical era to place the Minuet second (others include Haydn's 32nd and 44th, and his brother Michael's

15th 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 (number), 14 and preceding 16 (number), 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and . * A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky ...

and 16th). The IMSLP reverses the order of the Menuet e Trio and the Andante, thus bringing the movement order to the standard that was eventually established as common practice.

Third Movement

The slow movement is very similar to the slow movement in one of Haydn's earliest piano sonatas, Hob. XVI:Es2.

References

Symphony 037 Compositions in C major 1758 compositions {{symphony-stub