Haydn's symphonies in C major, particularly those with trumpets and drums, are nearly always "festival" works, it is likely that this symphony was composed for some important event in which Haydn's employer, Prince Esterházy, was involved. However, we don't know for sure when it was composed, and neither can we even be certain whether it originally had the trumpets and drums or whether Haydn added them later. To Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon one clue to the work's genesis is the sudden appearance of an oboe solo in the middle of the finale, at an unexpected place. Robbins Landon suggests this might have been occasioned by Haydn's having learned of the pending availability of the great oboe player Vittorino Colombazzo, who joined the staff of Haydn's orchestra from September 1 to December 19, 1768. Since a good source for the symphony, the 1769 copy in the Göttweig Abbey, contains the trumpet parts, Robbins Landon also thinks the symphony was originally composed that way. The question is not settled; hence there are recordings without the trumpets.

The first movement is poised and stately. One nice feature how the development section treats the melodic material in march rhythm. The second movement uses the popular Baroque technique of the echo. Haydn deploys the first violins without mutes. The second violins are muted. In Haydn's time these two sections were always seated across from each other on opposite sides of the orchestra, so when the second violins repeat the material of the first violins, they create a genuine effect of space and distance. The echo effect continues throughout this movement for strings only.

The minuet is in a typical Austrian style, rather old-fashioned for the date. The trio is forward-looking, with a sudden use of concertante elements—this is where the oboe has its first notable solo. The finale is also a forward-looking mixture: it falls into a full-fledged sonata form that nevertheless is full of contrapuntal procedures and then unexpectedly introduces the oboe, again in a concertante role. The variety of style elements makes for one of the most interesting among Haydn's symphonies of this period.

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