Money Musk#Music
{{Short description|Traditional contra dance and tune}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{for multi|the village|Monymusk|the baronial estate|House of Monymusk}}
File:Money Musk at Youth Dance Weekend 2019.webm, with music by Calluna. The clip begins after the caller has dropped out.]]
"Money Musk" ({{IPAc-en|'|m|ʌ|n|ɪ|_|m|ʌ|s|k}}{{cite web |title=Money Musk |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/money_musk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204064229/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/money_musk |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |website=Lexico Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=29 January 2021 |language=en}}), alternatively "Monymusk" or other variations, is a contra dance first published in 1786. It was named after a 1776 strathspey by Daniel Dow which is played to accompany it, which itself was named after the House of Monymusk baronial estate. The dance features a central theme of reoriented lines, and is regarded as moderately difficult. It is still widely danced today, and is considered a traditional "chestnut".
Dance
| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ !Part !Move !Beats |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |A
|Actives allemande right once and a half | style="text-align:center;" |8 |
| Actives go down the outside one place and join hands in lines of three
| style="text-align:center;" |4 |
| Lines go forward and back six
| style="text-align:center;" |4 |
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |B
|Actives allemande right three quarters and fall back into lines of three | style="text-align:center;" |8 |
| Lines go forward and back six
| style="text-align:center;" |4 |
| Actives allemande right three quarters
| style="text-align:center;" |4 |
| style="text-align:center;" |C
|Top two couples do right and left four | style="text-align:center;" |16 |
| colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |Formation: Triple minor, proper |
The dance is done in triple minor, proper formation (the figures are done within subsets of three couples, with all lark-role dancers beginning on the right and all robin-role dancers beginning on the left).{{cite book|last1=Tolman|first1=Beth|title=The Country Dance Book: The Old-Fashioned Square Dance, Its History, Lore, Variations and Its Callers|last2=Page|first2=Ralph|date=1937|isbn=978-1-4940-3855-7|page=87|publisher=Literary Licensing, LLC |author2-link=Ralph Page}} In its most common modern form, it consists of three parts, which are repeated a number of times.{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=Lynn |title=Money Musk Compilation |url=https://www.cdss.org/cracking-chestnuts-collection/toc/money-musk-compilation |publisher=Country Dance and Song Society |access-date=29 January 2021 |language=en}}
In the A part, the active couple (the couple closest to the band) does a right-hand allemande once and a half around. They then go down the outside of the set one place and rejoin, taking hands in lines of three. The lines go forward and back.
In the B part, the active couple does another right-hand allemande three quarters around and then falls back, so that the gent is facing down the hall between the second couple and the lady is facing up the hall between the third couple. The lines take hands and go forward and back. The active couple then does a final right-hand allemande three quarters around, returning the set to a proper formation, but progressed one place down.
In the C part, the top two couples pass through the set (walking to each other's places, passing by the right shoulder) and then turn as a pair (the dancer on the right walks forward and the one on the left walks backward, such that they take each other's place and end facing inward), both without touching.
At the end of the C part, the active couple has exchanged places with the second couple. The dance resumes with the active couple dancing the figures with the next two couples in the set.{{cite book |editor1-last=Burchenal |editor1-first=Elizabeth |title=American Country-dances: Twenty-eight contra-dances, largely from the New England states |date=1918 |publisher=G. Schirmer |location=New York |pages=55–57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Uo4eMr61DMC&pg=PA55 |access-date=6 March 2021 |oclc=66896551}}
=== Variations ===
Many variations of the dance exist, including a Scottish country dance.{{cite book|last1=Smukler|first1=David|title=Cracking Chestnuts: The Living Tradition of Classic American Contra Dances|last2=Millstone|first2=David|date=2008|publisher=Country Dance and Song Society|isbn=978-0-917024-30-6|location=Haydenville, Massachusetts|pages=41–52}}{{rp|pages=46–47}}
History
File:House of Monymusk.jpg in Aberdeenshire, Scotland]]
The dance was first published in 1786.{{Rp|page=46}} The name derives from the House of Monymusk, a baronial estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.{{cite web|title=Monymusk, Scottish Country Dance Instructions|url=https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/dance-crib/monymusk.html|website=Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary|accessdate=27 July 2020}}{{cite web|title=Money Musk|url=http://www.contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/EFDS5308-MonyMusk.html|website=contrafusion.co.uk|accessdate=27 July 2020}} The estate's name came from the Gaelic {{Lang|ga|moine mus(g)ach}}, meaning "nasty, filthy bog".{{rp|page=45}}
After initial publication, it spread rapidly, including to North America by 1792.{{Rp|page=48}} In the 19th century, the dance was done using a 32-bar sequence.{{Rp|page=41}} Variations solidified into a common form by the middle of that century.{{Rp|page=48}} Beginning at some point (possibly the 1870s, according to Ralph Page), it was gradually changed to a 24-bar sequence, requiring the figures to be danced more rapidly and the phrasing to change.{{Rp|pages=41,49}} Particularly, the forward and back was compressed from eight beats to four, which has led to disagreement about whether it should be a balance.{{Rp|pages=43–44}}
The dance appeared in Henry Ford's Good Morning (1926).{{cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Henry |last2=Lovett |first2=Benjamin B. |author1-link=Henry Ford |author2-link=Benjamin Lovett |title=Good Morning |date=1926 |publisher=Dearborn Publishing Company |pages=106–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNJHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA106 |access-date=28 October 2021 |language=en}}{{Rp|page=49}} It was danced continuously throughout the 20th century, including in the second folk revival in the 1960s, and became regarded as a traditional "chestnut" dance.
In 2009, a "Bring Back Money Musk" campaign to revive the dance was begun by David Smukler and David Millstone. On March 14 of that year, it was danced quasi-simultaneously by more than 1300 dancers in 22 locations across four countries. It has seen more active use since.{{cite news |last1=Smukler |first1=David |title=Bring Back Money Musk |url=https://davidsmukler.syracusecountrydancers.org/projects/bring-back-money-musk/ |access-date=8 December 2023 }}{{cite news |last1=Millstone |first1=David |last2=Smukler |first2=David |title=International Money Musk Moment Unites Dancers in Four Countries |url=https://www.davidmillstonedance.com/images/IMMM_article.pdf |access-date=6 March 2021 |work=CDSS News |issue=Summer 2009 |publisher=Country Dance and Song Society}}
Music
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>> >>
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File:Monymusk music.jpg's handwriting{{cite web |title=Monticello Music |date=October 11, 2006 |url=https://www.monticello.org/research-education/blog/monticello-music/ |publisher=Monticello |access-date=5 February 2021 |language=en}}]]
The music for "Money Musk" is a 1776 tune of the same name by Scottish composer Daniel Dow,{{cite journal |last1=Hast |first1=Dorothea E. |title=Review of Choose Your Partners! Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire |journal=The World of Music |date=2005 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=204–206 |jstor=41699638 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41699638 |access-date=17 September 2021 |issn=0043-8774}}{{cite book |last1=Thurston |first1=Hugh |title=Scotland's Dances |date=1954 |publisher=G. Bell and Sons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXpUwgEACAAJ |language=en |oclc=250725654}} published in 1780 as "Sir Archibald Grant of Moniemusk's Reel".{{rp|page=45}} It was originally a strathspey, a type of dance tune in {{music|time|4|4}} time slightly slower than a reel. The tune appeared frequently in nineteenth-century tunebooks.{{cite web |title=Money Musk [music transcription] |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000038 |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=6 March 2021}} Over time, it spread to other parts of the British Isles and North America, adopting elements of local styles.{{rp|page=44}}
In the 24-beat reel version of the tune used for the modern dance, the A and B parts are not repeated and a new C part is added.{{rp|page=44}} It is regarded as difficult to play.{{rp|page=44}} Unusually for contra dances, the tune and dance have become closely associated, and it is almost always danced to the traditional tune.{{rp|page=44}} It is traditional for dancers to shout the name of the dance when the music starts.
Reception
Both the tune and the dance have been well-received and have been enduringly popular.
Ralph Page described "Money Musk" as the most famous of all New England dances.{{cite news |last1=Page |first1=Ralph |author1-link=Ralph Page |title=Kitchen Junket |url=https://archive.org/details/northernjunket14page/page/8/ |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=Northern Junket |volume=1 |issue=4 |date=1949 |page=9}} In Cracking Chestnuts, David Smukler writes that the dance is "'crooked' (unusual in its metric or rhythmic structure), hypnotic, and manages successfully to remain both uncluttered and surprising".{{Rp|page=41}} He notes that its central theme is reorientation, as it involves lines both along the sides of the set and facing up and down the dance hall.{{Rp|page=41}} The dance is regarded as moderately difficult.{{cite news |last1=Page |first1=Ralph |author1-link=Ralph Page |title=Contra Dance: Money Musk |url=https://archive.org/details/northernjunket211page/page/18/ |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=Northern Junket |volume=2 |issue=11 |date=October 1951 |pages=18–21}}
Smukler wrote of the tune that it "bristles with irrepressible excitement".{{Rp|page=44}} It allegedly appeared on a dance card at Abraham Lincoln's inaugural ball.{{Rp|page=45}} A version arranged by Nicholas Britell and performed by Tim Fain was used in the soundtrack for the 2013 biographical drama 12 Years a Slave.{{cite web |title=12 Years a Slave (Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture) by Various Artists |url=https://music.apple.com/us/album/12-years-slave-music-from-inspired-by-motion-picture/730171673 |publisher=Apple Music |access-date=31 October 2021 |date=1 November 2013}}{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Ryan |title=5 original songs for 12 Years a Slave composed by Nicholas Britell |url=https://www.awardsdaily.com/2013/11/08/5-original-songs-for-12-years-a-slave-composed-by-nicholas-britell/ |access-date=31 October 2021 |work=Awards Daily |date=8 November 2013}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.cdss.org/cracking-chestnuts-collection/toc/money-musk-compilation Money Musk video with annotated calls] at the Country Dance and Song Society
- [https://vimeo.com/4062404 Animated video] showing the choreography of the dance
- [https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Money_Musk_(1) Money Musk] at the Traditional Tune Archive