A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Toy Symphony

TOY SYMPHONY (Ger. Kindersinfoniei; Fr. La Foire des Enfants, or Symphonie Burlesque). The English name by which a certain work of Haydn's is known. A tradition which there is no reasonable cause for doubting says that the composer got seven toy instruments at a fair at Berchtesgaden, and taking them to Esterház, summoned some of his orchestra to an important rehearsal. When they found that they were expected to play a new symphony upon these toys (the only real instruments in the score are two violins and a double bass) the most experienced musicians in the band failed to keep their time for laughing. The original parts are entitled 'Sinfonia Berchtolsgadensis'; the toy instruments employed are a 'cuckoo' playing E and G, a trumpet and drum in G, a whistle, a triangle, and a 'quail' in F. There are three movements, the last of which is played three times over, faster and faster each time. The symphony is in C major, and was written in 1788. [See Pohl's 'Haydn,' vol. ii. p. 226, etc.] Andreas Romberg wrote a symphony for much the same instruments, with the addition of a pianoforte duet, a rattle, and a bell. He attempts more elaborate modulations than Haydn ventures to use, but his symphony lacks the fun and freshness of the older master's work, although his slow movement, an Adagio lamentabile, is very humorous. Mendelssohn wrote two—the first for Christmas 1827, for the same orchestra as Haydn's, the second for Christmas 1828. Both seem to have vanished. [See vol. ii. p. 261.] Mr. Franklin Taylor has written one for piano and toys which is not infrequently played.

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