Symphony No. 45 (Haydn)

Symphony No. 45 in F♯ minor, known as the "Farewell" Symphony (German: Abschieds-Symphonie; modern orthography: German: Abschiedssymphonie), was composed by Joseph Haydn and dated 1772 on the autograph score.

The tale of how the symphony was composed was told by Haydn in old age to his biographers Albert Christoph Dies and Georg August Griesinger.

At that time, Haydn's patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy was resident, together with all his musicians and retinue, at his favorite summer palace at Eszterháza in rural Hungary. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians had been forced to leave their wives back at home in Eisenstadt, about a day's journey away. Longing to return, the musicians appealed to their Kapellmeister for help. The diplomatic Haydn, instead of making a direct appeal, put his request into the music of the symphony: during the final adagio each musician stops playing, snuffs out the candle on his music stand, and leaves in turn, so that at the end, there are just two muted violins left (played by Haydn himself and his concertmaster, Luigi Tomasini). Esterházy seems to have understood the message: the court returned to Eisenstadt the day following the performance.

The work is in F♯ minor. According to Webster, this choice was unusual, indeed the Farewell Symphony is apparently the only 18th century symphony ever written in this key.

The symphony could not be performed without the purchase of some special equipment: on 22 October 1772 Haydn signed an order (preserved in the scrupulously maintained Esterházy archives) for two special half-step slides (German: Halbthönige Krummbögen) for use by the horn players. These slightly lengthened the horn's tubing, permitting the instrument to be used to play in keys a semitone lower than usual. (The horn of the time was the valveless natural horn, which needed to be adjusted with inserted crooks to play in different keys.) Haydn's purchase order is part of the evidence that the symphony was completed in the Fall of 1772.

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Wikipedia