Symphony No. 3 (Haydn)

Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 3 in G major, Hoboken I/3, is believed to have been written between 1760 and 1762.

It is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, strings and continuo. [H. C. Robbins Landon, "The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn". London: Universal Edition & Rockliff (1955): 618. "2 ob., 2 cor., str., [ fag., cemb. ] "] It was one of the earliest symphonies to have four movements:

* I. Allegro
* II. Andante moderato in G minor, 2/4
* III. Minuet and Trio, 3/4
* IIII. Allegro, cut time

The winds are dismissed for the slow movement, but the trio of the minuet shows "the first emergence of winds from their earlier rôle ... in the earliest divertimenti for winds and strings." [(Landon, 1955): 218]

The Minuet itself is a canon between the higher and lower voices at an interval of a single bar. Haydn would later write a similar canon in the minuet of his twenthy-third symphony and similar canons would be later be written into G major minuets by Michael Haydn and Mozart.HC Robbins Landon, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, 5 vols, (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1976-) v. 1, Haydn: the Early Years, 1732-1765] Later still, Haydn himself would develop this technique into the "Canones in Diapason" of the minuet of his Trauer Symphony and the "Witches Minuet" of his D minor string quartet from Op. 76.

The Finale is also contrapuntal. It is a fugue with two subjects that also integrates elements of sonata form.

Discography

Symphony No. 3 is available on a CD with No.s 1, 2, 4, 5, performed by the Sinfonia Finlandia conducted by Patrick Gallois on Naxos Records. But besides that recording, the low-numbered symphonies without nicknames are generally available only as part of a boxed set of all the symphonies or a large number of symphonies, such as Adrian Shepherd's set with Cantilena of No.s 1 - 12 on Chandos Records or the Nimbus Records set of No.s 1 - 20 by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra with various conductors. Christopher Hogwood with the Academy of Ancient Music prefers to go by chronology of composition rather than numbering, therefore No. 3 is in a set with other symphonies from 1760 - 1763, such as No.s 14, 20, 33, 36.

References