Publisher's Note This volume offers a new view of Joseph Haydn's instrumental music. It argues that many of Haydn's greatest and most characteristic instrumental works are through-composed in the sense that their several movements are bound together into a cycle. Professor Webster challenges the concept of classical style which, he argues, has distorted our understanding of Haydn's development, and he stresses the need for a greater appreciation of Haydn's early music and of his stature as Beethoven's equal.