The earliest of the published sonatas,[73] No. 1 (33), is somewhat of a curiosity.  It consists of four movements:  an Allegro in G major; a Minuetto and Trio, G major and minor; an Adagio in G minor; and an Allegro molto in G major.  It is the only sonata of Haydn’s which contains four movements.  The plaintive Trio and the Scarlatti-like Finale are attractive.

In the year 1774, J.J.  Hummel, at Amsterdam, published six sonatas, the last three of which appear to have been originally written for pianoforte and violin;[74] and in 1776 six more were printed by Longman & Broderip as Op. 14.  These may serve as specimens of Haydn’s early style; and in them, by the way, the composer was accused of imitating, nay, caricaturing, E. Bach.

In the European Magazine for October 1784 there appeared an account of Joseph Haydn, “a celebrated composer of music,” in which occurs the following:—­

“Amongst the number of professors who wrote against our rising author was Philipp Emanuel Bach of Hamburgh (formerly of Berlin); and the only notice Haydn took of their scurrility and abuse was to publish lessons written in imitation of the several styles of his enemies, in which their peculiarities were so closely copied, and their extraneous passages (particularly those of Bach of Hamburgh) so inimitably burlesqued, that they all felt the poignancy of his musical wit, confessed its truth, and were silent.”

Further on the writer mentions the sonatas of Ops. 13 and 14 as “expressly composed in order to ridicule Bach of Hamburgh”; nay, he points to the second part of the second sonata in Op. 13 and the whole of the third sonata in the same work by way of special illustration.

There are many resemblances to E. Bach in Haydn,—­notes wide apart, pause bars, surprise modulations, etc.,—­and this is not more extraordinary than to find resemblances between Mozart and Beethoven; but the charge of caricature seems unfair.  Besides, it is scarcely likely that Haydn, who owed so much to Bach, would have done any such thing.  It must be remembered that at the date of the European Magazine in question, E. Bach had not yet published any of the six Leipzig Collections ("Sonaten fuer Kenner,” etc.), by which he is best known at the present day.

Of the six sonatas, Op. 13, the first three are Nos. 8 (26), 9 (27), 10 (28) in Pohl’s thematic catalogue (Joseph Haydn, vol. ii.).  The other three have not been reprinted in modern collections.  In the first three the keys and order of movements are as follow:—­

     No. 1.  Allegro moderato in C; Adagio, F; Finale, Presto.

     No. 2.  Allegro moderato in E; Andante, E minor; Finale,
     Tempo di Menuetto.

     No. 3.  Allegro moderato in F; Larghetto, E minor; Presto.

These sonatas are interesting as music, and the workmanship is skilful.  If one can get over the thinness of the part-writing, especially in the slow movements, there is much to enjoy in them.  The style of movement—­Tempo di Menuetto—­in No. 2 recalls Emanuel Bach’s “Wuertemberg” sonatas of 1745.