Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Monymusk

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

MONYMUSK (S8x32) 3C (4C set) Preston RSCDS Book 11

1- 8 1s turn RH and cast to 2nd place (2s step up), turn 1¼ times LH (4 bars) to end 1L between 2s facing down, 1M between 3s facing up
9-16 2s+1s+3s set twice, 1s Petronella turn on second setting onto opposite sides (bars 11-12) and all set twice again on sides. 2(1)3
17-24 2s+1s+3s circle 6H round and back
25-32 1s dance reels of 3 on sides giving RSh to person on their Right (2nd corner) and 1s cross RH to places. 213

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


Monymusk
Preston RSCDS Book 11
Strathspey 8 x 32 bars 3 Couple Repeat 4 Couple Set Longwise Set

  1-4   1s turn by the right and cast;

  5-8   1s turn by the left 1¼ times, finishing 2M1L2L facing 3M1M3L in lines across;

  9-10 all set;

11-12 all set again, 1s pulling right shoulder back on the left foot step to finish 2s1s3s, 1s on opposite sides;

13-16 all set twice on the sides;

17-24 2s1s3s 6 hands round and back;

25-30 reels of 3 on the sides, 1s giving right shoulder to second corners to start;

31-32 1s cross to own sides in 2nd place.

(MAXICRIB. Scottish country dancing instructions compiled by Reuben Freemantle)


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Instruction Videos

Monymusk - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information


Dance Information

Monymusk (Money Musk, Money Mosque, etc.) is a Country Dance from the 1780s. It was interpreted by the RSCDS in Book 11, 1936.

It is the only dance I know of with interpretations as a Scottish Country Dance, an English Country Dance and an North American Contra Dance; indeed the book "Cracking Chestnuts" (2008) claims there are more than 20 Contra Dance variants alone (Cracking Chestnuts delves deeply into the history of this dance).

The tune was written by Daniel Dow, a Scotsman, and published in 1776 as a 32 bar strathspey. In 1785 Werner set figures to it and in 1786 Preston set somewhat different figures (both Englishmen). In the US the tune became a reel, and then a 24 bar reel.

Scottish Country Dancing did not distinguish itself from Country Dancing (of the English) until after WW1, and the Scottish dance Monymusk did not get codified until 1936 in RSCDS Book 11.

(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)


This strathspey, Monymusk (c. 1786), is named after the Strathspey tune, Monymusk (c. 1775), which itself was named after the baronial estate (c. 1170).

The pipe-inspired Strathspey tune, Monymusk (Money Musk), can be found first in Daniel Dow's (Edinburgh music teacher 1732-1783) collection, Thirty-Seven New Reels And Strathspeys (circa 1775), under the title Sir Archibald Grant Of Monemusk. It then appears in 1786 as Sir Archibald Grant's Reel, then in 1799 with Niel Gow as Monny Musk and since 1778 in many collections as Monymusk.

Monymusk Strathspey takes its name from Monymusk House, a baronial estate in the possession of the Grant family, in the Marr area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which was almost entirely rebuilt in 1840, although its history dates back to 1170.

Monymusk (pronounced "moaneemusk") is a version of the Gaelic words "Muine muisc" meaning a "noxious weed or bush".

Monymusk Strathspey Tune And Baronial Estate - Information Video

The House Of Monymusk
The House Of Monymusk


Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Strathspey article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Monymusk article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original Money Musk article on The Traditional Tune Archive.
Image copyright Greg Stringham under this Creative Commons Licence 2.0.

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