The Haffner began as a serenade, ordered from Vienna in the summer of 1782 to mark the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner the younger in Salzburg — the same family for whom Mozart had written the Haffner Serenade six years earlier. He sent the movements off one at a time, complaining that he had no time for them. When he wanted a symphony for a Viennese concert the following March he asked for the score back, removed the march and one of the two minuets, added flutes and clarinets to the outer movements, and told his father the music had astonished him: he had forgotten every note of it.