Of all composers, maybe it is Haydn who could make more of the simple language of music without repeating himself or becoming tedious than any other. Only Mozart, who lived less than half as long, or Franz Schubert, whose span was even less than this, may have become the vast and deep founts of musical beauty which was Franz Joseph Haydn. It is in fact Haydn's very productivity and clarity which caused some musical scholars to dismiss his work as overly simple. It has also been supposed that, like that of Felix Mendelssohn, Haydn's work lacks substance and meaning because he lived a comfortable life, unburdened by the stress of earning a living. The facts reveal, however, that Haydn was actually a self-taught composer who lived by his wits in a shared flat, giving music lessons and shining shoes, until he was nearly thirty. By the year 1763, Haydn, as a result of the notice of his very first symphony by the wealthy Hungarian nobleman, Prince Anton Esterházy, had secured the post of his assistant music director and with comfortable living, security, and an orchestra and singers at his disposal, had begun to turn out works of all sorts for many different occasions. Haydn was a particular master of the symphony and although he did not invent the form, he is credited with propelling it to maturity and establishing it as a self-standing musical form rather than an overture or program filler for other works. The Symphony No. 12 appears early in this process and is considered a chamber symphony. In three movements totaling about sixteen minutes, it is a trifle compared to his following works but it is sophisticated and complete. Beginning with characteristic Haydn simplicity, the first movement features a fetching melody over effective counterpoint, all in sonata form with a coda. Yet somehow it is Haydn and not boring and this was his genius. The second movement, an eight minute adagio, is somber and begins in E minor—an unusual choice for a work otherwise in E major. It is almost halting and dirge-like although unison chords continually interrupt. It is also full of surprise turns and cadences and is in this way the most unusual movement of the three. The finale is a brief, three and one half minute presto which begins, sustains, and ends breathlessly. It opens with a typical two-phrase Haydn melody and swirls through a clever bridge to a likewise breathless second theme which rhythmically supports the first but does not simply mimic it. The process repeats and all ends well. Haydn was already in his thirties when he crafted this work and it shows both the progress of his skill and that much of his growth was yet to come.

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