If rondo form is typically used in fast finales, here it is very fast and closes one of the most effervescent and joyous of all Haydn’s symphonies. Like Symphony No. 94, No. 101 also has earned a nickname — “The Clock,” for a steady, tick tock motive in the second movement.

In largest outline the fourth movement shows many typical features of rondo form. Its main theme (A) takes on the |: a :|: b a :| form; here is the complete a melody:

Also typically, when A first comes back, it is presented in abbreviated fashion, without repeats. (The melody also is varied when it returns: a becomes a′ and then a″.) The movement as a whole presents A three times, with two episodes in between: A B A C A.

For their part, the episodes are not simple tunes but complex music reminiscent of sonata-form developments — loud, busy, and contrasting strongly with the sprightly A theme. This is common in symphonic rondos and especially in Haydn’s. The second episode starts off with furious, stormy music in the minor mode, briefly threatening the lightheartedness of the movement. Each episode has a quiet moment in its midst with a new melody, which begins in a way reminiscent of the a melody but then veers off with syncopated rhythms:

The second episode ends on a broad, expectant pause, and the last return of A begins with something unexpected: a fugue, taking as its subject another varied version of the a melody:

This is a very free fugue. There is scarcely room in the middle of this rondo for the kind of systematic imitative counterpoint we might expect from Bach. Nevertheless, it persists, complete with a quick-moving melody that accompanies it (in fugue terminology, a countersubject), until it rises up to a culminating statement of the subject in the full orchestra. After the fugue, a final, short statement of a leads to the kind of emphatic, repeated closing cadences common at the end of Classical works — but especially needed here to ground the freewheeling musical energies Haydn has generated.