Hoboken number

The Hoboken catalogue is a catalogue of the musical compositions by Joseph Haydn compiled by Anthony van Hoboken. It is intended to cover the composer's entire oeuvre and includes over 750 entries. Its full title in the original German is Joseph Haydn, Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis ("Joseph Haydn, thematic-bibliographic catalog of works").

Works by Haydn are often indicated using their Hoboken catalogue number, typically in the format "Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIa:1".

The catalog is a massive work; a currently available version runs to 1936 pages. Each work is given with an identifying incipit, printed on a single musical line. There is discussion of manuscript sources, early editions, listing in previous catalogs (including the two Haydn prepared), and critical commentary.

Catalogs of composers' works typically follow either a chronological arrangement (sorting by date of composition) or a sorting by musical genre. Hoboken's catalogue is of the latter type; thus the symphonies, for example, are in category I, all string quartets are in category III, piano sonatas are in category XVI, and so on.

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