A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ox Minuet, The

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

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.]

[ C. F. P. ]