Monymusk reel

Composer : Daniel Dow c.1776
Source: Packie Duignan & Seamus Horan : “Music from County Leitrim”
Transcription: Gian Marco (craniota)

Monymusk is a lovely village in Aberdeenshire, Scoltland.

Some say this tune is a reel, a highland, a strathsspey, a scottish, a fling and so on.

Seems to me a highland.

we play it first as a strachspey then as a reel and into devils dream
however, we play a second part:
afda fadf afeb caBg afda faga fdBe cAAf

brilliant tune anyhow

In Hammy Hamilton’s “Moneymusk” CD, it’s a highland.

g

… and follows the other highland, “If we hadn’t any women in the world” as the first track of the cd.

It would be a strathspey in Scotland, a “highland” in Donegal, and probably a “fling” anywhere else in Ireland.My father’s family come from Moneymusk - it’s still there!

i messed up that abc for the second part
its actually:
aeca eace aedb caBg aeca eaga fdBe cAAe

dont know what i was thinking
apologies
theres also a nifty version of this tune in oneils

Altan combines this with Duncan Davidson (another Strathspey/Highland depending) and the Wild Irishman on their Blue Idol CD for a great set.
Also, there is a really tasty version of this in Cole’s [Ryan’s] in the Strathspey section. I would think the Cole’s version would be difficult to play at the speed I usually hear “Highlands” played. It seems to me the higland versions of strathspey’s are performed at a more brisker pace.

Donegal Highlands are short for Highland Scottische and are a different dance entirely from a strathspey. Strathspeys as danced in Scotland and by Scottish country dancers are a deal slower than the Highland. Intrestingly enough there are ‘Germans’ in the Donegal tradition and they are short for German Schottisch taken at a speed of about a Barn Dance. It’s even more interesting to realise that the original schottisch was not Scottish at all but a German dance written to be danced to an imitation of scottish music (the snap)

Sorry, I meant to add that Moneymusk as a dance is a fine and popular Strathspey

GM had it right in the first place…strathspey ~ reel ~ highland ~ fling ~ highland fling ~ single-schottische… These things get around, especially a good tune. I’ll be back with some other takes on this lovely and worldly melody. Thank you Danny Dow for the seed…

Now, just for a little clarity where the water is considerably kicked up and muddy, before I add those other takes, ‘highland’ is one short form as is ‘fling’, short for ‘highland fling’, which was not limited to the North, or Ulster, or Donegal and Fermanagh… While ‘schottische’ also gets knocked around and applied to just about anything with a swing, including these 16 bar wonders, sometimes also refered to as ‘single’, like for single reels, also 16 bars, mostly ‘schottische’ is for a larger form, ‘double’, such as 32 bars…and while they all do share steps across the range, ‘schottische’ was mostly defined by the accompanying dance form, in it’s smallest kernal being four bars/measures in length, but the classic ‘hop123, hop123, hop-step, hop-step, hop-step, hop-step’ ~ well, for those who have, you’ll see that it got around…including into the ‘sets of quadrilles’, as well as shared within the whole hornpipe clan, highland flings included. Now, as far as ‘early’ knowledge with regards to a source for the dance and tune forms, despite the name being used ‘German Schottische’, the nearest we can get to an early source is the mountains of Eastern Europe, or the lovely and environmentally at risk Carpathian mountains. The dance the schottische has been blamed on Poland and the former Czechoslovakia. It is likely that the Polish dance craze started off the spread the lovely music and dance of the schottische which reached all around the world ~ South Africa and Tasmania to Greenland and Alaska, from the Tatras to the Rockies… Yeah, so I’m biased, I love the numerous versions and variations of the form…

Oh yeah, there were two common national attachments made back in the 1800’s, aside from the eponymous ‘German’ Schottische there was also the ‘Spanish’ Schottische’ with no huge differences between them…

You can listen to Hammy Hamilton play it: http://homepage.tinet.ie/~hammie/Musk.mp3 It’s obviously coupled with a barndance “If We Hadn’t Any Women in the World.”

Nice one Slainte, but that second one ain’t a barndance or “If We Hadn’t Any Women in the World”. It’s another highland, but I haven’t the name for it just now, but it’s a damn sweet set… Thank you Slainte, thank you Hammy… 🙂

It seems Mr. Hamilton doesn’t know how to edit the sample clip. Well, the first one is “If We Hadn’t Any Women….” I thought the second one is the Moneymusk, but actually not. Thanks ‘c’ for pointing that out.

Slap, slap, SLAP!!! YES! ~ The first one is “If We Hadn’t Any Women in the World” ~ what an awful place it would be…and the second is a take on Moneymusk.

This I should have picked up but was in highland fling mode and obsessing over all the variations I’ve got of this one, in name and in sequence of notes and parts and endings, playing through them and trying to remember others while listening to some fine playing of the melody from Eire and Cape Breton and beyond… I tend not to mix the two into a set, so I either play 16 bar highlands, though I sometimes throw in some peculiarities, or 32 bar barndances, but not mixed together. Hammy’s soup sent me a little off kilter, as if I wasn’t squiff enough already. I have come across the occassional rare 4-part highland (strathspey), 32 bars = A8-B8-C8-D8, and there are a couple of takes of this melody in that doubled form…including a printed source or two from the 19th Century. What is a kick is that some are like having two 16 bar highlands glued to each other, each with a second ending, in other words for parts B & D…

While I like the Hammy track, the take on Moneymusk was too short and that laying on to the closing note made me wince…like drinking pickling vinegar, if you know what I mean…
😉

K:G
|: (3gfe |
d<GB>G d>Gc>e | d<GB>G A>Bc>e |
d>GB>G d<G (3Bcd | e>cA<d B>G :|
|: G>f |
g>dB>g d>g (3Bcd | g>dB<G e>Ac>f |
1 g>dB>g d>g (3BAG | e>cA<d B>G :|
2 g>ef>d e>cd>B | c>Ad<c B>G ||

Now for some touchstones, history, this transcription is taken from that great 1887 compilation of tunes by Keith Norman MacDonald ~ “The Skye Collection”, page 97

K: G Major
|: e |
d<GB>G d>Gc<e | d<GB>G (3ABA c>e |
d<GB>G B<dd>g | e>cA>d B<GG :|
|: f |
g>dB>g d>gB>g | g>dB>g c>gA>f |
1 g>de>g d>gB>g | e>cA>d B<GG :|
2 g>de>g d<bc<a | B<gA<g B<GG ||

& “The Athole Collection”, 1884

K: G Major
|: e |
d<GB>G d>Gc<e | d<GB>G (3ABA c>e |
d<GB>G B<dd>g | e>cA>d B<GG :|
|: f |
g>dB>g d>gB>g | g>dB>g c>gA>f |
1 g>de>g d>gB>g | e>cA>d B<GG :|
2 g>de>g d<bc<a | B<gA<g B<GG ||

Oh yes, I forgot the compiler of “The Athole Collection” ~ James Stewart Robertson… Another superb Scottish compilation and source of inspiration…

Yes, as you can see above, absolutely no change over 3 years and between two different collectors/compilers, even the snaps. James Stweart Robertson was also one of the founding members of ‘The Edinburgh Highland Reel and Strahtspey Society, and had also been its president, pretty serious stuff. Maybe all that suggests the vesrion given is fairly close to as Daniel Dow had intended? It has changed into many forms since then… I’ll return with at least another one of those many versions of distinction later… It is a tune that found a home all over Eire… 😉

~ two important Scottish sources:

Reprint of “The Athole Collection”, 1884
ISBN: 0952830809
Highland Music Trust
http://www.heallan.com/index.html
http://www.heallan.com/athole.html
James Stewart Robertson
http://www.nigelgatherer.com/
http://www.nigelgatherer.com/perf/fiddlers/jsrob.html

Reprint of “The Skye Collection”, 1887
ISBN: 0786665106 (Cranford Pub. & Mel Bay)
http://www.cranfordpub.com/
http://www.cranfordpub.com/books/skye.htm

Go here for what I think might be a Donegal reel setting https://thesession.org/tunes/2897.

I think this might also be a version of it https://thesession.org/tunes/654.

Has also been recorded as the “Gardener’s Dance” in Québec by Edouard Picard and Henri Lacroix in 1930.

In Québec many versions of Money Musk exist in different keys, with sometimes a ’C“ part and a bridge. On a 1-row melodeon in key of D people change key to A by playing the accordion “backwards” and compensating for the missing G#.

Typical of this playing is this wonderful recording by Eugène Collin, ca. 1932 with an added bridge and ’C“ part:
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/m2/f7/13087.mp3

This tune is in the Gunn Book (Fermanagh 1865) as well - interesting to note it referred to earlier as the Fermanagh Highland

My dad, who was Glaswegian, used to thump this one out on the piano when I was a wee thing. He always played it with a lift and snap.

My father in law who plays English style, played it very differently, as I recall it was smoother.

Jim Donoghue played a lovely version of this tune in D. It went something like as follows (I got it from John Carty this way):

K: D
|AD (3FED ADBD|A2 (3FED EFGB|AD (3FED A2 (3ABc|dBAG F>D D2|
|A2 (3FED ADBD|AD (3FED EFGB|A2 (3FED A2 Bc|dBAG FD D2|
|dA ~A2 D2 ~A2|DAFA BE E2|DA ~A2 DAFA|GBAG F>D D2|
|dA ~A2 D2 ~A2|DAFA BEEz|(3cdc (3BcB (3ABA G3 z|FGAc dedB|

X: 1
T: Moneymusk
D: Altan - The Blue Idol
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: highland fling
K: Amaj
af|:eAcf eAcf|eAcA Bcdf|e<Acf eAce|1 fdBd cA (3agf:|2 fdBd cAA2||
aece fece|aece fBB2|aece fece|fdBd cAAg|
aece fece|aece fBBg|(3aba (3gag (3fgf ec|defg a2 (3agf||

Submitted on January 31st 2012 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/11748

A different transcription atributed to Altan, by Will Harmon, can be found following the previous link Dow has given above, to tune #654.

Submitted on April 8th 2004 by Dr. Dow.
https://thesession.org/tunes/2778

This tune is also allegedly a variant of the same tune, although the similarities are not as obvious…

# Posted on February 1st 2012 by Dr. Dow

This version appears in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland - 1001 Gems (1907), p. 111, no. 614.

Here is the version published in the Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883), p. 61 (p. 57 in the modern edition). I changed the measure from 2/4 in C|.
The 5th and 6th staves give “Variation 1st: – to second strain, ad lib.” and “Variation 2nd. – To second strain, ad lib.”
This publication gives the following instruction for dancing :
“First couple join right hands and swing once and a half round, go below second couple, forward and back six.
First couple give right hands, swing three quarters round (to inside of set) forward and back six, first couple give right hands, swing to place, right and left four.”

Lissa Schneckenburger’s version on her album “Dance” is fun, especially as it develops over time and a second fiddle part joins in. Also nice in her trio jam at youtu.be/4DAulKbZBwk [[starts at 3:30]].

play video

Called a Highland in the source

Interesting background to this wonderful tune here:

http://tunearch.org/wiki/Money_Musk_(1)

Here’s the Strathspey played by Paul Anderson, who is from just down the road from Moneymusk itself. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA7uoDQ8xqo

play video

Reminds me that just about the last thing I did, before leaving Aberdeenshire, back in ’92, was play a wee concert in Castle Fraser, just down the road frae Moneymusk.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/northantrimbirds/32303752526/in/dateposted-public/

“The Moving McLeods playing in Castle Fraser, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, back in 1992. L to R: Dick Glasgow, Peter Cunningham, Kenny Hadden, Gillian Scott & Ron Pirrie.”

Ahhh the good old days! 😀

Cheers,
Dick

The O’Neill version in G, with a few tweaks and with both parts played twice, because it’s more fun that way.

The third tune in the set of three Jemmy/Jimmy Duffy Barndances, as played by Jim Hoy on Hidden Fermanagh Vol 2
The first tune in the set is:
https://thesession.org/tunes/19931
The second tune in the set:
https://thesession.org/tunes/19941

Was ‘Moneymusk’ brought about, over the decades, by ‘Lucy Campbell’ strathspey? It just sounds too similar not to have been. Not in a bad way, but clearly close. I guess with history; the passage of workers by sea, people visiting family in Scotland and vice versa, in Ulster, caused tunes to be shaped and molded in a special way in the north. https://thesession.org/tunes/13065

Clearly, if one addictively listens to enough Donegal, Cape Breton and Scottish musicians, you’ll start hearing strathspeys played in Scotland that sound nearly identical to some Donegal highlands. This is one clear example to me. In some cases, a Scottish reel forms the basis to a Donegal highland, or a strathspey is the influence.