Money Musk is a dance with deep roots. Versions very similar to the one still in use today were described some two hundred years ago, and, unlike other chestnuts (such as British Sorrow) that had faded from use but were later revived, one version or another of Money Musk appears to have been beloved and danced in New England continuously from that time to this. It is therefore with much humility and some trepidation that we present this column. Dancers feel such affection and attachment to the dance that no matter what we write about it someone is certain to feel that we have "gotten it wrong."
However, a series of Cracking Chestnuts columns without Money Musk would be, by definition, incomplete. Our plea to critics is to trust the strength of the dance itself to survive our bungling attempts at describing it. Beyond that, we entreat those of you readers who are also callers to please use Money Musk. Take it off of the shelf often, so that it has the opportunity to insinuate its charms into the consciousness of new generations of contra dancers.
Here is how the dance goes (phrasing will be discussed later):
Money Musk
Triple minor and proper
Actives turn by the right-hand 1-1/2 to trade places, then go down the outside below one place.
Lines-of-three, facing across, go forward and back.
Actives turn by the right again, 3/4 round to put the active gent between couple two facing down and the active lady between couple three facing up.
Lines-of-three, facing up and down, go forward and back.
Actives turn one last time by the right, 3/4 more to get proper.
Top two couples right and left four.
In several ways the dance Money Musk is like some of our favorite old folk tunes, those that have been honed to perfection by long folk process. It is composed of a few unadorned elements, repeated in a creative way. It is "crooked" (unusual in its metric or rhythmic structure), hypnotic, and manages successfully to remain both uncluttered and surprising.
Money Musk is based on an extremely simple and powerful idea: reorientation. The active couples start out creating dramatic excitement by both getting "improper" (crossing the set to each other's lines) and progressing one place down the set. After acknowledging this new position by taking lines-of-three forward and back, they begin a journey back to their own line that involves reorienting those lines-of-three so that they face up and down the hall. A second reorientation resolves the story, leaving the actives progressed and proper. Ending the dance with right and left four creates a feeling of familiarity and full resolution; rights and lefts are the comfort food of classic contra choreography.
This is clearly a clever storyline. However, any consideration of Money Musk as it is danced today requires going beyond the bones of the story to examine how the figures fit to music. Almost certainly, the dance as done in the nineteenth century was a 32-bar sequence. It probably was phrased something like this:
| A1 | Actives turn 1-1/2 to trade places and go down the outside below one (16) |
| A2 |
All six go forward and back with some sort of pleasing stepping* (8) Actives turn one another clockwise 3/4 round until the active gentleman is standing between couple two facing down and the active lady between couple three facing up (8) |
| B1 |
Forward and back again like that (8) Actives turn 3/4 again, so that they are progressed and proper (8) |
| B2 | Top two couples right and left four (16) |
At some time in its history, Money Musk changed in a fairly radical way. It became fashionable to drop 8 bars (16 counts) of music without, however, dropping any of the dance figures. This required both acceleration of the figures and some creative phrasing. Ralph Page (Elegant Collection) makes the claim that this change occurred in New Hampshire in the 1870s, although dance manuals (including two by Page) continued to print it as a 32-bar sequence as late as the 1980s. It seems to be a case of the books saying one thing, but the actual dancers doing something different. In an early Northern Junket magazine (1949) Page describes this compressed version of Money Musk as part of his account of an old-fashioned New England kitchen junket.
There came now, one of those unaccountable lulls in any party. For a few seconds all were quiet. The grandfathers clock in the corner cleared its throat and struck twelve. "Time for Money Musk," said Mother quietly. No fanfare over this most famous of all New England dances. A simple statement of fact accepted by all of us. "All right everybody. Here we go. First and fourth couples join right hands and turn once and a half around. Go below one couple and forward six. Three quarters round and forward six again. Three quarters round and right and left four. All ready Jim?" We did the dance New Hampshire style; using twenty four measures of music instead of thirty two; taking little short steps all the way through the dance. Each time we went "forward six" we used the old step that was halfway between a 'pas de bas' and a Highland Fling step. Extremely difficult to describe, you would have to see it to have any idea how it should be done (Northern Junket, 1(3), p. 16; Northern Junket, 1(4), p. 9).
Although some evolution toward tighter turns and more rapid movement was not unusual for the time, a 24-bar contra dance sequence is not at all typical of the tradition, and it is by no means clear what caused Money Musk to go through this transformation. One of the more fanciful explanations we have heard comes from Ed Moody. He describes it as a change related to the dancing that took place at rural kitchen junkets, like the one described by Page above.
[R]emember this - not only was the room long and narrow, but also that a blazing fire is kinda hot to stand in front of too long. Thus, because of space available, the right hand loping turns with outstretched arms, changed to tight turns with forearms vertical, taking less steps to perform. There are 3 such turns in each cycle of Money Musk. Now the men who were always lined up with their backs to the fireplace were interested in moving a bit so as to avoid scorched seatusses! And it came to pass that, though in regular ballrooms with ample room, the loping hand turns were preserved, the kitchen junkets kept the tight turns and the quicker movements by the inactive men saved 16 whole steps, the equivalent of 8-measures of music (Northern Junket, 10(9), p. 8).
So, just how, exactly, are we to accomplish the Procrustean task of fitting 32 bars of dance figures into 24 bars of music? Here is the most common phrasing found today:
| A |
Actives turn by the right hand 1-1/2 (8) Go down the outside below one and join hands in lines-of-three (4) Go forward six and back (4) |
| B |
Active turn by the right 3/4 until the active gent is standing between
couple two facing down and the active lady between couple three facing up
(8) Forward six and back (4) Actives turn by the right 3/4 again, so that they are progressed and proper (4) |
| C | Top two couples right and left four (16) |
What makes everything fit in this approach is that the forward and back movement happens in only four counts, not eight as you might expect. Ralph Page is very clear about this. He tells the active couple after they go below one, "Join hands-with both of them-take two short steps forward and two steps back." (NJ, 2, 11, p.19)
The phrasing above creates a strong asymmetry between the two right-hand turns in the B-part. The first is a leisurely eight counts. The active couple can make the turn in a relaxed way, and then fall back from one another to gather up the other couples into the reoriented lines. The second turn, however moves the same distance in only four counts, just half the time. It requires anticipation and determination to make the turn and end up in place to begin the rights and lefts on the phrase. Dudley Laufman (personal communication) says that some old-timers had a clever strategy to get through this. For the second forward and back, the actives would only take a little quick step back before going into their right-hand turn, thereby stealing a little time "to shuffle with ease into the right and left."
There are also other ways to straighten out this particular kink when dancing Money Musk. For example, some active couples will make each turn in six counts. This approach forces the forward and back movement to cross the phrase, a subtlety that can be hard to convince couples two and three to support. (This is the phrasing suggested by Roger Knox in his book, Contras: As Ralph Page Called Them.)
Another trick is to phrase the dance as above, but make the turn at the top of the B-part a left-hand turn 1-1/4 instead of a right-hand turn 3/4. This puts the actives in the same place, but allows them to move at a pace closer to that of the other turns in the dance. The most common approach, however, and one to which we subscribe, holds that it is exactly this contrast between the two turns--the first with its exaggerated courtesy, and the second with its exhilarating sense of acceleration--that adds so much to the charm of Money Musk.
(end of Part I)
| A |
Actives turn by the right hand 1-1/2 (8) Go down the outside below one (4), and all six balance forward and back (4) |
| B |
Active turn by the right 3/4 until the active gent is standing between
couple two facing down and the active lady between couple three facing up
(8) Balance forward back from here (4) and actives turn by the right 3/4 again, so that they are progressed and proper (4) |
| C | Top two couples right and left four (16) |
In the last Cracking Chestnuts column we described how Money Musk, which had once been a 32-bar sequence, is now most often danced in 24 bars. The biggest effect of this change was on the two important moments when lines-of-three go forward and back, first doing so as they face across the hall, and then up and down the hall. The constraint of fitting all the figures into 24 bars almost ensures that this forward and back movement (originally eight counts) be compressed into four counts. Only one 24-bar version (suggested by Ted Sannella) maintains the eight-count forward and back, and it does so by making all the hand turns very rapid indeed:
| A |
Actives turn by the right 1-1/2 and go down the outside below one (all in
just 8 counts) Forward six and back (8) |
| B |
Active turn by the right 3/4 until the active gent is standing between
couple two facing down and the active lady between couple three facing up
(4) Forward six and back from here (8) and actives turn by the right 3/4 again, so that they are progressed and proper (4) |
| C | Top two couples right and left four (16) |
The forward and back movement in Money Musk is one of those seemingly tiny points in a traditional dance about which there are passionate differences of opinion. The four-count timing common to virtually all of the versions danced today seems to invite a balance step, and indeed many dancers relish balances in Money Musk as a favorite moment, a chance to use footwork to connect with the other dancers and the band. But many old-timers, although they use only four counts to go "forward six and back," strongly resist calling these moments "balances."
Ralph Page always called the Money Musk with a forward and back. Never said "balance." Forward and back is the way he has it in his book, Rickey Holden has it that way in his, Henry Ford calls it that way, and in Coles 1000 it is worded that way. Those are all old collections, and it is the way I learned the dance back in the 40's. There was nothing particularly loud about it. If it were a hall full of the locals, you knew there was a shuffle thump thump on the forward and back. But it wasn't loud loud. When the flat landers started coming up to the dances they tried to imitate the shuffle thumps and of course they couldn't so it sometimes got loudish, and Page did his best to quell such goings on. But you know, he was an advocate of the use of ski boots for dancing, so you can imagine the racket those things would make. (Dudley Laufman, personal communication)
Actually, a few early dance manuals did use the word "balance" (or other terms that suggest what we now think of as "balancing" or "setting" steps). For example, Saltator (1802) uses the term, "Dance Address," which, elsewhere, he defines as, "a set step, as the ballotte, or pas et [sic] basque." Phinney (1808) uses "balance," as does Finch (1830). Overall, however, Dudley is correct. Most of the dance manuals, old and new, tend to give "forward and back." Furthermore, in the days before the 24-bar "New Hampshire version" of the dance had evolved, a "balance" would have been an eight-count figure that probably included some sort of stepping, but would not have resembled what present-day contra dancers understand as a "balance."
Having said all this, we cannot help but to observe that both Dudley's "shuffle thump thump" and Ralph Page's description of the "old step" for the forward and back ("halfway between a 'pas de bas' and a Highland Fling step") are, well, balance-like. And that use of foot punctuation seems to us to have become very much a part of the Money Musk style, which always includes some swagger and vigor. For this reason, without intending to imply that the footwork be especially noisy, we have written our directions for the dance above as "balance forward and back." After all, the forward and back in Money Musk has an important choreographic purpose, namely to underscore the dancers' reorientation: now across, now up and down. So, whether you call it "address," "forward and back," or "balance forward and back," move confidently into each orientation, and do so with attitude.
While we were poking around in old dance manuals, it was interesting to note that the word "swing" is often used to refer to what we now call a hand turn. So, in several old descriptions of Money Musk, the actives "swing round by the right hand." Perhaps herein lies a clue to why a dance like Money Musk, which has no swing as such, can retain such powerful appeal in an age where most contra dances seem to be built around the swing. The secret is that these right-hand turns are swings. After all, they are a clockwise turning movement that you share with a partner with whom you are well connected. What's that? A swing!
No exploration of Money Musk would be complete without considering its glorious tune. Originally a Scottish strathspey written by Daniel Dow, the tune spread to many places, including Ireland, England and Canada, and throughout the United States, with versions in New England, the Midwest, and even the southern Appalachians and the southwest. In each area the tune took on features of the local style. Without question the historical popularity of the dance Money Musk owes much to its appealing tune. Some of the early nineteenth century descriptions of the dance resemble the modern version, while others are clearly different. This suggests that the tune was especially popular, so that several sequences of figures were created for it.
The New England version of the tune, a rip-roaring reel, is a necessary ingredient for the dance Money Musk. It is an unusual tune in some ways. First of all, it must be played in 24 bars to fit the dance. To accomplish this the A and B-parts are not repeated, and a C-part (not originally part of the Dow composition) has been added, which is variously described as resembling "Molly Hare" and "The Keel Row." Playing the first two parts at dance speed requires some virtuosity from the fiddler. Dancers and callers, appreciate any fiddler who can provide it to your community! And you, fiddlers, despite its challenges, we encourage you to take on the 24-bar New England Money Musk. Although not the easiest of tunes to play, it rewards the effort; it is a tune that bristles with irrepressible excitement.
And, while it is true that there are other reels that either are 24 bars long or could be adapted, we recommend that you accept no substitutes. It is possible in theory to dance through the figures to other tunes, but Money Musk is one of those chestnuts for which the steps and the melody are so closely associated that it truly does not feel like the same dance when another tune is used.
Anyone who thinks they can dance Money Musk to any other tune is not a dancer. One time we were doing the Money Musk at a fancy ball. Ernie Spence and his wife were the couple below us. Going great guns, music was top drawer. A little more than half way down the set, the band switched tunes. Ernie and I stopped in our tracks. Just couldn't do it. We dropped out, stood at bottom of hall shaking our heads in dismay. They switched back and we gleefully jumped back in. (Dudley Laufman, personal communication)
Money Musk! Jump in and give it a try. Shuffle, thump, thump...