This beautiful and melancholy symphony was written by Joseph Haydn In 1771 for the Strachey Family in Germany. It is also known as “Truer,” meaning “sad”, “mourning” or sorrowful and is written in Be minor. Haydn rarely wrote his symphonies In minor keys. The symphony got Its nickname supposedly from a story that Haydn wanted one of the movements, the slow movement, to be played at his funeral. His request was not met. The dramatic, expressive and different feel of this piece definitely depicts the more stormy side of Heyday’s musical nature.
It has almost an operatic feel as you approach the middle of the first movement. The four note motif is heard throughout the piece in various keys and guises. Haydn was adept to constructing entire movements out of short motifs. This piece was a classic example and usually Is associated with the Strum and Drank (storm and stress/longing) movement like most of his symphonies from that period. The main theme is never lost throughout the symphony. In regards to Haydn other works, he was a popular court composer during the classical period of music and was employed by the Stretchers Family in Germany for over 30 years.
Haydn music evolved along with the change of taste and many of his symphonies during this time had extremely Individualistic characteristics. A three or four note theme is commonly found in Haydn music. And Binary or rounded binary form which is ABA or ABA (with repeats) is represented display of his outstanding composition skills and ability to perfect form. Joseph Heyday’s Symphony No. 44 was written in 1772. The pseudo of the symphony translates to ‘mourning’. The symphony was written in Heyday’s strum undo drank (storm and stress) period.
He had been in the employ as Experimentalist of the royal Strachey family since 1766, and some of the symphonies he wrote between 1766 and 1772 show how much Haydn Nas experimenting (with the full consent of his royal patron). The two minor key symphonies of this time No. 49 ‘La Passion’ and No. 44 ‘Truer’ are especially expressive, dramatic and different. Haydn wrote a total of seven minor key symphonies in seven years in a time when minor keys were seldom used as the home key for a symphony. It is rumored that Haydn had a stormier side to his musical nature as a youth.