The Symphony No. 65 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...

, Hoboken I/65, 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...

 which was composed by 1778

1778 in music

- Classical music :*François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie concertante en fa majeur n° 2, à plusieurs instruments*Joseph Haydn – Little Organ Mass*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No...

.

Movements

The symphony 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, 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...

. There are four movements:

1. Vivace e con spirito
2. Andante, 3/8
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: Presto, 12/8

The first movement starts with three declamatory chords at intervals of a rising fourth and a falling minor second followed by a lyrical answer which constitutes the first theme group. Interestingly, this section does not appear in the recapitulation causing some scholars to question if this movement is 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...

 as its form is closer to that of an Italian overture.

Scholars have theorized that the eccentric slow movement may have been conceived as incidental music to a play, perhaps as Elaine Sisman

Elaine Sisman

Elaine Rochelle Sisman is the Anne Parsons Bender Professor of Music at Columbia University, where she has taught since 1982...

 suggests, Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

.

The minuet is not dance music, as it is rhythmically complex. Haydn switches frequently between 3/4 and 4/4 meter. The minor-key trio also features metric complexity in the form of hemiola

Hemiola

In modern musical parlance, a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time are articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time...

s.

The finale is a hunting piece, similar to the famous finale to the 73rd symphony

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 :...

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