Michael Haydn

Michael Haydn

Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.-Life:...

's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Perger 51, Sherman 4, MH 62, was written in Salzburg, completed on December 7, 1763. Charles H. Sherman's modern edition of this work has been published by Musikverlag Doblinger and also appears in an anthology from Garland Publishing that includes symphonies by Anton Cajetan Adlgasser

Anton Cajetan Adlgasser

Anton Cajetan Adlgasser was a German organist and composer at Salzburg Cathedral and at court, and composed a good deal of liturgical music as well as oratorios and orchestral and keyboard works.Born in Inzell, Bavaria, he moved to Salzburg, where he studied under Johann Ernst Eberlin...

 and Johann Ernst Eberlin

Johann Ernst Eberlin

Johann Ernst Eberlin was a German composer and organist whose works bridge the baroque and classical eras. He was a prolific composer, chiefly of church organ and choral music...

, two other Salzburg composers.

Scored for 2 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, 2 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, 2 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...

, in three movements:

1. Allegro
2. Andante, in E-flat major, called "La Confidenza"
3. Allegro molto

Charles Sherman finds the first movement "noteworthy for the length of its development section (nearly equal in number of measures to the exposition and to the recapitulation) and for the persistence with which it treats a motive derived" from the main theme.. Another unusual feature of the first movement is that it ends piano, something rare even in the following century (for example, Beethoven's Eighth

Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)

Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Beethoven fondly referred to it as "my little Symphony in F," distinguishing it from his Sixth Symphony, a longer work also in F....

 and Bruckner's Eighth

Symphony No. 8 (Bruckner)

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is the last Symphony the composer completed. It exists in two major versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 in Vienna...

).

Scholars aren't sure why the second movement is called "La Confidenza" ("the secret communication"). It changes from a slow tempo and 3/4 time to a faster tempo in 2/4. The horns are dismissed for this slow movement, but the two bassoons stay and are given independent parts.

The last movement is a fast rondo

Rondo

Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...

in 3/8, which this symphony has in common with the others Haydn wrote at about the same time.