The Symphony No. 53 in D major

D major

D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....

, Hoboken I/53, 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...

. It is often referred to by the subtitle "L'Impériale". The symphony was composed by 1774

1774 in music

- Events :*Antonio Salieri is appointed court composer to the Emperor Joseph II.*Domenico Cimarosa is invited to Rome for the opera season.*Charles Burney writes A Plan for a Music School.*Pascal Taskin becomes keeper of the King's instruments....

. It is scored for flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, 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...

.

The work is in four movements:

1. Largo maestoso - Vivace
2. Andante
3. Menuetto
   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...
   
    & trio
4. Finale. Capriccio
   Capriccio (music)
   A capriccio or caprice , is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character...
   
   : Presto

The second movement is in double variation

Double variation

The double variation is a musical form used in classical music. It is a type of theme and variations that employs two themes. In a double variation set, a first theme is followed by a second theme , followed by a variation on A, then a variation on B, and so on with alternating A and B...

 form beginning and ending in A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

 with the second theme in A minor

A minor

A minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...

.

There are actually two other versions of the Finale. Haydn took the overture to an unknown opera which began in C major

C major

C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....

, and truncated the last dozen measures so as to conclude in D major. 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...

has postulated that Haydn did not compose the third version of the Finale, but that instead another composer, hired by the publisher Sieber, was responsible. The Eulenburg edition, edited by Robbins Landon, includes both of Haydn's finales. The surviving autograph score of the second Finale had no flute or timpani parts, so Robbins Landon took them from a Hummel edition. For the timpani part there are rolls indicated by "tr" and a wavy line (something which occurs in none of the other movements except by Robbins Landon's editorial emendation in bar 16 of the first movement).

L.P. Burstein has noted Haydn's use of the VII chord and the VII → V progression in the fourth movement, second ("B") version.