Le Bœuf sur le toit (literally "the ox on the roof"), Op. 58 is a short piece for small orchestra by the composer Darius Milhaud, written in 1919–20. Milhaud conceived the piece as incidental music for any one of the comic silent films of Charlie Chaplin, but it received its premiere as the music for a ballet staged by Jean Cocteau in February 1920.
Milhaud said that he composed Le Bœuf sur le toit as "fifteen minutes of music, rapid and gay, as a background to any Charlie Chaplin silent movie". The composer spent two years in Brazil in the French diplomatic service during the First World War, and was influenced by its music in his own compositions. There have been various explanations of the title: the musicologist James Harding mentions one, that the title was taken from the sign-board of a tavern, and another, that it is from an old Parisian legend of a man in a top-floor flat who insisted on keeping a calf, which grew into a large ox, too big to be removed. Milhaud himself said that it was the title of a Brazilian folk dance.
- Difficulty:
- Intermediate/Advanced
- Instrumentation:
- 2Fl1dPicc, Ob, 2Cl, Bsn, 2Hn, 2Tpt, Tbn, Perc, Strings
- Duration:
- 18 minutes
- Set of Parts:
- Includes Strings count 4.4.3.3.2
- Product Type:
- REPRINT SERIES