In the first edition the composer was given as Haydn with no further identification. From that time it was assumed that Haydn was the composer of this seven-minute, three movement homotonal symphony which calls for toys, a trumpet, ratchet, nightingale, cuckoo and drum.

Later scholars began to question if it really was a work by Haydn.

The identity of the true composer of the Toy Symphony seemed apparent with the discovery of the work in its three-movement form in a manuscript copied by Leopold Mozart in 1759. However, the accuracy of the Leopold Mozart attribution was called into question as it became clear that he was an avid copyist who regularly made his own editions of dozens of other composers pieces by hand.

So the identity of the true composer is still unknown but it is commonly called haydns toy symphony as that was how the first published edition of this work was identified