Symphony No. 49 (Haydn)

It was long believed that the nickname "La passione" or The Passion derived from the nature of the music itself: the slow opening movement of the sinfonia da chiesa, its minor key modality and its association with the Sturm und Drang period of Haydn's symphonic output.

As Elaine Sisman has discovered:[2] The traditional view of this symphony is, however, strikingly at odds with the title transmitted in a Viennese source, now at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde: "Il Quakuo [recte quacquero] di bel'humore" – that is, the good-humoured, good-natured or waggish Quaker.

Die Quäker was the title under which Chamfort's 1764 comedy La jeune indienne was published in German.

It is possible, therefore, that the "dark-hued" reading of the symphony was, in fact, an insouciant characterisation of the earnest Quaker figure from Chamfort.

The symphony is homotonal as all the movements are in F minor, although the trio is in F major, providing a glimpse of brightness in the generally pessimistic scene.