The Symphony No. 37 in

C major C major 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 its parallel min ...

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 c ...

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

. The numbering is completely misleading, as it is clearly one of Haydn's earliest symphonies. A copy of the score found at

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, Czech Republic, is dated 1758. It can be presumed it was written for the orchestra of

Count Morzin Count Karl Joseph of Morzin (1717–1783) was a Bohemian aristocrat from the Morzin family (originally from northeastern Italian region of Friuli), remembered today as the first person to employ the composer Joseph Haydn as his ''Kapellmeister'' ...

, 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

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind 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 virtuosity ...

, two

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

s (or two

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

) and

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

possibly with continuo. It is possible the trumpet and timpani parts were added later. The work is in four movements: #

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(

, 168 bars, ) #

Menuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually written in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that ...

e Trio (C major and

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: Cha ...

(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,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'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

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15th and 16th). The

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public domain, public-domain sheet music, music scores. The project use ...

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 In Western classical music, the common practice period (CPP) was the period of about 250 years during which the tonal system was regarded as the only basis for composition. It began when composers' use of the tonal system had clearly superseded ...

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