The Toy Symphony (full title:
Cassation in
G major for toys, 2
oboes, 2
horns,
strings and
continuo) is a musical work dating from the 1760s with parts for toy instruments, including toy trumpet,
ratchet, bird calls (cuckoo, nightingale and quail),
Mark tree,
triangle, drum and
glockenspiel. It has three
movements and typically takes around seven minutes to perform.
Long taken to be a work of
Joseph Haydn,[1] subsequent scholarship has suggested it to be that of
Leopold Mozart,[2] Joseph Haydn's younger brother
Michael Haydn, [3] or most recently (1996) the Austrian
Benedictine monk
Edmund Angerer [
de] (1740–1794).[4] If Angerer's manuscript (from 1765, entitled "Berchtolds-Gaden Musick") is the original, the Toy Symphony was originally written not in G but in
C major.[a] There is reason to believe that the true composer will likely never be known, in whole or in part, given its confused origins and the paucity of related manuscript sources.[5]
Other works for toy instruments
The cassation described above was one of a number of anonymous toy symphonies composed at
Berchtesgaden near
Salzburg, then a manufacturing centre for toy instruments. Some of the instruments used for these can be seen in the
Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg.[6]
Other toy symphonies, overtures and works for ensembles by named composers include:
^Benstock, Seymour (June 14, 2013). Did You Know?: A Music Lover's Guide to Nicknames, Titles, and Whimsy. USA: Trafford Publishing. p. 194.
ISBN9781466972926.