Money Musk, Mony Musk, Moniemusk or Monymusk

Source: Bicky McLain; published in English Dance & Song, Aug. Sept. 1953. Vol XVIII. No. 1
Formation: Longways; Proper; Triple Minor

	Old 32 Bar Version
A1	#1s Allemande Right 1 & 1/2 (about once then Pull By Right) (8) #1s Cast Down one place (#2s Move Up) to the Middle of Side Lines of Three (8)
A2	Lines Go Forward & Back (with stepping) (8) #1s Allemande Right 3/4 and fall back to the Middle of Head Lines (8)
B1	Lines Go Forward & Back (with stepping) (8) #1s Allemande Right 3/4 and fall back into Progressed, Proper positions (8)
B2	Top Four: Right & Left Through x2 (16) (Same Gender - Eyes Only, or arms around waists)

	Modern 24 Bar Version
A	#1s Allemande Right 1 & 1/2 (about once then Pull By Right) (8) #1s Cast Down one place (#2s Move Up) to the Middle of Side Lines of Three (4) Lines Go Forward & Back (with stepping) (4)
B	#1s Allemande Right 3/4 (slow) and fall back to the Middle of Head Lines (8) Lines Go Forward & Back (with stepping) (4) #1s Allemande Right 3/4 (fast) and fall back into Progressed, Proper positions (4)
C	Top Four: Right & Left Through x2 (16) (Same Gender - Eyes Only, or arms around waists)

Music:
The tune was composed by Daniel Dow in Scotland in 1776 and published in 1780 as "Sir Archibald Grant of Moniemusk's Reel". Moine Musach is Gaelic for "nasty, filthy bog"!

32 or 24 bars, depending on which version you are dancing.

Notes:
Also known as Mony Musk, Moniemusk and Monymusk.

For LOTS more information see "Cracking Chestnuts" by David Smukler and David Millstone. Most of the dances in that book get three or four pages; Money Musk gets twelve!

Bicky says "played very slowly" but I doubt it was done that way in 1785, and it certainly isn't today in America. You can see here the modern American style of dancing it, by eight different groups from 1992 to 2013.

At some point, probably around the 1870s, the dance changed from 32 bars to 24 bars, by speeding up some of the moves and by doing the Forward & Back in four steps instead of eight. Bicky shows the older version below.

When it was first published in 1785 by Francis Werner it had some of the elements that we use today, but some of it was quite different:

Turn your Partner with the right hand quite round and cast off one Cu:
turn with the left quite round
set 3 & 3 top and bottom & turn your Partner
set 3 & 3 sideways & turn your Partner
hands six quite round and back again
lead out sides and turn your Partner with both hands.

There were dozens of variations published over the years, some due simply to the tune being popular and the common practice in that period being to put lots of different sequences to popular tunes. . Here are two from Thomas Wilson's "The Treasures of Terpsichore" from 1811:

Money Musk

Note: Wilson defined "Swing with right hands around one couple" as having the cast on your own side; this matches Werner's original "quite round and cast off". That changes the dynamics of the next turn, depending on who ends up in each of the lines.

In the early versions which contain "rights and lefts" it would have meant "four changes of a circular hey" or "right pull by, allemande left - twice". "Right & Left Through" with courtesy turns, or the Eyes Only turns that you can see in the video, were an early 20th century invention.

Original page from English Dance & Song, Aug. Sept. 1953

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