Letters of the composer have come down to us only on a few of Haydn’s symphonies, amongst them the "Laudon" Symphony, Hob. I:69. In one of these letters, Haydn agrees to the publisher’s suggestion to name the symphony after the widely known and favored general Gideon Ernst von Laudon (1717-1790). By using this name, both composer and publisher hoped to increase the commercial success of the work which possibly deserved a military eponym considering its instrumentation with timpani and trumpets. Also, the symphony requires two bassoons, but no flutes, corresponding with the available musicians at the court of Esterházy between 1775 and 1776.