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The piece is written for two oboes, a bassoon, two French horns, and strings (violins divided into two, violas, cellos and double basses). As is usual for symphonies, it is in four movements:
The first movement of the work is a turbulent affair in F sharp minor, an extremely unusual key to use at the time of the work. It opens a manner typical of Haydn's Sturm und Drang period, with descending minor arpeggios in the first violins against syncopated notes in the second violins and held chords in the winds. The movement can be explained structurally in terms of sonata form, but it departs from the standard model in a number of ways (just before the recapitulation, for example, new material is introduced, which might have been used as the second subject in the exposition in a more conventional work).
The second, slow, movement in A major is also in sonata form. It begins with a relaxed melody played by muted violins, featuring a repeated "hiccuping" motif. The mood gradually becomes more serious with an alternation between major and minor modes, resembling many similar passages in the later work of Schubert. There follows a series of dissonant suspensions carried across the bar line, which are extended to extraordinary lengths by Haydn when the same material appears in the recapitulation. James Webster (see reference below) hears this music as programmatic, expressing the yearning for home.
The following minuet is in the key of F sharp major; its main peculiarity is that the final cadence of each section is made very weak (falling on the third beat), creating a sense of incompleteness.
The last movement begins as a characteristic Haydn finale in fast tempo, written in sonata form in the home key of F sharp minor. The rhythmic intensity is increased at one point through the use of barriolage in the first violin part. The music eventually reaches the end of the recapitulation in a passage that sounds very much as if it were the end of the symphony, but suddenly breaks off in a dominant cadence.
What follows is essentially a second slow movement, which is extremely unusual in Classical symphonies and probably sounded very surprising to the Prince. This is written in 3/8 time and modulates from A major to F# major, during which time the musicians take their leave. The ending is a kind of deliberate anticlimax and is usually performed as a very soft pianissimo.
A typical performance of the Farewell Symphony lasts around twenty-five minutes.