Jack in the Box (Satie) Derain, and the music orchestrated by Satie's friend Darius Milhaud. The ballet received mainly negative comments: French critics called it "banal", while English critics decried it as "pert but hollow." It was also published as a short suite for solo piano in the form in which Satie left it. The piano and orchestral versions have both received numerous recordings. The work has three short movements, lasting less than seven minutes: All the movements are in C major, and all undergo many time changes between and , the changes often lasting for only a single measure at a time. The music
Darius Milhaud began as a violinist, later turning to composition instead. Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent d'Indy. From 1917 to 1919, he served as secretary to Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist who was then the French ambassador to Brazil, and with whom Milhaud collaborated for many years, setting music for many of Claudel's poems and plays. While in Brazil, they collaborated on a ballet, "L'Homme et