Joseph Haydn

Symphony No. 44 in E minor 'Trauersinfonie'

Symphony No. 44 was completed in 1772 by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Rumored that the composer requested the third movement be played at his funeral, the work is popularly known as "Trauersinfonie," or the "Mourning" symphony. The piece displays Haydn's "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress) style, and has four movements, as is typical of a Classical era symphony. Haydn, rather unusually, placed the minuet and trio as the second movement rather than the third, making Symphony No. 44 one of the few symphonies of the Classical era to alter the traditional movement order. This Breitkopf & Härtel reprint edition places the movements in the traditional Classical era format, with the minuet as the third movement. Instrumentation: 0.2.0.0: 2.0.0.0: Str (4-4-3-3-3 in set) (Cl included as Ob2 alt; opt. Bsn to use Vc-Bs part).