The Money Musk is a classic American contra dance, one of a group of dances frequently referred to as the "chestnuts." The Money Musk has been around for a couple of hundred years. The Money Musk tune has 4 parts, each of 8 bars; and each part is played just once through. Often, the dance is compressed into 24 bars (48 beats), by reducing each forward-and-back to four beats and/or by speeding up the allemandes. For a 24-bar dance, the tune is shortened, usually by eliminating the fourth part. Traditional, always danced to the tune of the same name. Triple and proper (1,4, etc., active) :A1 Actives allemande right once and a half; go outside, below one couple (16); A2 Forward six and back (8)Actives allemande right three quarters around, to lines of six across the hall(8); B1 Forward six and back (8)Actives allemande right three quarters to place (8); B2 Top two couples (1s and 2s) right and left through (across and back) (16).
Read a testimony about the Moneymusk by Lisa Sievert from the Monadnock Folklore Society : http://www.monadnockfolk.org/?p=339#more-339
Consult a music sheet originally collected by Francis O'Neill around the turn of the 20th Century, from Irish Style collected by Croninand transcribed by Trish O'Neil :
http://www.8notes.com/scores/8881.asp?ftype=gif
To observe the dance see the version in Norwich, Vermont, on March 14, 2009, as part of an entire evening's program devoted to older contra dances :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnCnMSEAejg
To learn about Jean Carignan listen to this interview in 1957 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fmL88QXCU
To learn about Jean Carignan's biography :
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000612
To access to Jean Carignan's Smithsonian Folkways discography click on this link :
http://www.folkways.si.edu/searchresults.aspx?sPhrase=Jean%20Carignan&sType=%27phrase%27/
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