List of string quartets by Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn wrote sixty-eight string quartets. (The number was previously thought to be eighty-three, but this includes some arrangements and spurious works.) They are catalogued by Anthony van Hoboken's catalogue of his works, and also by their publication order in the First Haydn Edition (FHE), but are most often simply referred to by their opus numbers.

The two quartets numbered 3 and 5 are spurious arrangements by an unknown hand.

This set of quartets is now commonly attributed to Romanus Hoffstetter, though this is not universally agreed on. According to the scholar Allan Badley, "The works were omitted from the Entwurf-Katalog, the running catalogue of his works he (Haydn) kept from 1765 until after the London visits, but found their way into the Haydn-Verzeichnis prepared in 1805 under the composer’s direct supervision by his faithful factotum Joseph Elssler. Haydn also accepted the six works as genuine in the edition of his complete string quartets published by Ignaz Pleyel. Unfortunately, both strands of evidence are not beyond questioning." Badley goes on to say "The meagre bibliographical evidence has been painstakingly sifted and the works themselves subjected to every kind of analytical technique known to musicology. Haydn’s authorship still remains doubtful but so too does that of Pater Romanus Hoffstetter the most commonly favoured alternative."

The nickname "Sun" refers to the image of a rising sun, an emblem of the publisher, on the cover page of the first edition.

Named after Johann Tost, a violinist in the Esterhazy orchestra from 1783–89.

Count Anton Georg Apponyi, a relative of Haydn’s patrons, paid 100 ducats for the privilege of having these quartets publicly dedicated to him.

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