A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ox Minuet, The

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1953699A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Ox Minuet, The


OX-MINUET, THE. The title of a Singspiel by Hofmann, founded on an anecdote from Haydn's life, the music selected from his works and arranged by Seyfried (P.F. arrangement by C. W. Henning; Berlin, Trautwein). It was often performed in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, and in Paris is known as 'Le Menuet du bœuf.' The play is founded on an anecdote of a Hungarian butcher having requested Haydn to write a minuet for the marriage of his daughter, in exchange for which the grateful butcher sent the composer a live ox. The minuet, however, is not by Haydn, and the story is entirely apocryphal. [See vol. i. p. 720, note 14.]