Symphony No. 22 in E-flat major, Hoboken I/22, is a symphony written 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...

 in 1764. Nicknamed "The Philosopher" ("Der Philosoph"), it is the most widely programmed of Haydn's early symphonies.

Haydn composed this symphony during his tenure as assistant Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 at the court of Prince Nikolaus Eszterházy. Written in 1764, the symphony uses a sonata da chiesa

Sonata da chiesa

Sonata da chiesa is an instrumental composition dating from the Baroque period, generally consisting of four movements. More than one melody was often used, and the movements were ordered slow–fast–slow–fast with respect to tempo...

 movement layout, although the language of the piece foreshadows the development of classical symphonism. As with other early Haydn symphonies that use this tempo scheme, all of the movements are in the same key. Three of them are in sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

 (the first, second, and fourth) and the remaining third is the customary minuet

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...

 and trio

Trio (music)

Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...

 in ternary form

Ternary form

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...

.

Origins of the nickname "The Philosopher"

As with nearly all the named Haydn symphonies, the title "Philosopher" was not Haydn's own; it was, however, commonly used in his own lifetime. The title is thought to derive from the melody and counterpoint of the first movement (between the strings and cor anglais), which musically allude to a question followed by an answer and paralleling the disputatio

Disputation

In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences...

 system of debate. The piece's use of a muted tick-tock effect also evokes the image of a philosopher deep in thought while time passes by.

Scoring

Like other symphonies composed around this time, the work was written for the small number of players (less than twenty) on retainer at the Esterházy court. The scoring is unusual in its use of two cor anglais

Cor anglais

The cor anglais , or English horn , is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family....

 (English horns) in place of the more common 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...

. The rest of it stays true to convention with two 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...

s, 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 ....

, timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

, continuo

Figured bass

Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...

 (harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

) 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...

. The horns play a prominent role in all but the second movement, and Haydn's choice of E flat major may have been dictated by the fact that the valveless horns of the time sounded best when played as E flat instruments (that is, with E flat crooks

Crook (music)

A crook, also sometimes called a shank, is an exchangeable segment of tubing in a natural horn which is used to change the length of the pipe, altering the fundamental pitch and harmonic series which the instrument can sound, and thus the key in which it plays.-Master crook and coupler...

 inserted).

Form

The symphony is in four movements:

1. Adagio, 4/4
2. Presto, 4/4
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
   Trio (music)
   Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
   
   , 3/4
4. Finale: Presto, 6/8

The first movement is the highlight of the symphony and features horns answered by cors anglais over a walking bass line. H. C. Robbins Landon

H. C. Robbins Landon

Howard Chandler Robbins Landon was an American musicologist.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and studied music at Swarthmore College and Boston University. He subsequently moved to Europe where he worked as a music critic. From 1947 he undertook research in Vienna on Joseph Haydn, a composer...

 calls it "surely one of the settecentos supremely original concepts".

The finale is one of the earliest examples of a "hunting finale" that would later be used in symphonies such as No. 65

Symphony No. 65 (Haydn)

The Symphony No. 65 in A major, Hoboken I/65, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn which was composed by 1778.-Movements:The symphony is scored for two oboes, two horns and strings...

 and No. 73 "La Chasse"

Symphony No. 73 (Haydn)

The Symphony No. 73 in D major, Hoboken 1/73, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn composed in 1782. It is often known by the subtitle La chasse .-Nickname :...

.

Second version

Another version of the piece, well known in Haydn's time, has three movements with the second movement of the original version coming first, followed by a different movement that is marked andante grazioso in 3/8 and concluding with the same finale as in the original version. The second movement is thought to be spurious, which has led to the belief that this arrangement is not Haydn's own. H. C. Robbins Landon suggests that this arrangement was likely made to the original composition due to the "strangely original" adagio and the existence of cors anglais, which were not available in many areas. It is precisely these elements that make this symphony so popular, so this version is seldom performed in modern times.