The Symphony No. 40 in F major

F major

F major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...

, Hoboken I/40, is a symphony

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

 by Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

. Despite its number, Haydn had composed this symphony by 1763

1763 in music

-Events:*July 9 - Mozart family grand tour: The family of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sets out on a European tour, ending this year in Paris*The first public concert with a glass harmonica is performed by Marianne Davies...

, long before the other symphonies numbered in the 30s and 40s in Hoboken's catalog Chronologically, the symphony belongs with no. 13 and has stylistic similarities with Haydn's earliest symphonic output.

Movements

The work is in four movements and is scored for two oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s, bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

, two horns

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....

, and strings

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

:

1. Allegro, 3/4
2. Andante piu tosto - Allegretto in B flat major
   B flat major
   B major or B-flat major is a major scale based on B-flat, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats, B/E .Its relative minor is G minor, and its parallel minor is B minor....
   
   , 2/4
3. Menuet
   Minuet
   A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
   
    e Trio, 3/4
4. Allegro, 2/2

The last movement is a fugue, as with the contemporary Symphony No. 13

Symphony No. 13 (Haydn)

Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 13 in D major was written in 1763 for the orchestra of Haydn's patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, in Eisenstadt.The work can be precisely dated thanks to a dated score in Haydn's own hand in the National Library of Budapest. Two other Haydn symphonies are known to have...

 and the later Symphony No. 70

Symphony No. 70 (Haydn)

The Symphony No. 70 in D major, Hoboken 1/70, was written by Joseph Haydn to mark the start of construction of a new opera house on the Eszterháza estate...

.