Appalachian music. Money Musk [music transcription]. Note sheet.

Meter: 4/4
Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed.
Key: A
Compass: 8
Strains: 3 (high-low-(high), 2-2-(4)), where ( ) = first strain of "Devil's Dream"
Rendition: 1r-2r-(1r)-2r-1r-2r-1r-2, where ( ) = first strain of "Devil's Dream"
Phrase Structure: AB QR (ABAC) (aba'c qrqs (abcd abef)), where ( ) = first strain of "Devil's Dream"
Related Tune(s): Devil's Dream
Handwritten: Played once thru, then 1st str. of "Devil's Dream" by accident, then 2nd str. of MM again, then twice thru again (last str. not repeated last time). First time thru transcribed. Var. More like straight 16th notes this time The following is a 3rd part, add
Henry Reed recorded "Money Musk" four times; it was a project of sorts for him to get it assembled in all its possible parts. The tune--or at least its first two strains--is a Scottish reel from the end of the eighteenth century. Francis O'Neill (Irish Folk Music, p. 204) mentions a set, entitled "Sir Archibald Grant of Moniemusk's Reel," published ca. 1800, and it is in the Northumbrian small pipes collection Peacocks Tunes (ca. 1801), p. 2. It is a standard feature of nineteenth-century tunebooks; see for example Knauff, Virginia Reels (1839), vol. 1, #1 "Killie Krankie"; Winner's Collection of Music for the Violin, p. 55 "Highland Fling"; One Thousand Fiddle Tunes, p. 31 "Money Musk--Reel" and p. 128 "Money Musk--Strathspey." Twentieth-century sets show the tune to be well-established in Northern American tradition; see for example Linscott, Folk Songs of Old New England, p. 98; Burchenal, American Country-Dances, Volume I, p. 55; Ford, Traditional Music of America, p. 52.Henry Reed's version is a rarity in the Upper South, and it is all the more extraordinary for adding extra strains that turn the piece into a complex and challenging set piece. His first two strains are always the usual strains of "Money Musk," but following Upper South predilections he begins with the highest strain, and his second strain (the usual first strain) is distinctive in rising to the octave rather than descending to the lower tonic. His third and fourth strains (in AFS 13705b17) are unique to his performance. Note how at one point in that four-part performance he accidentally hits the open G and D-strings for the first note of the third strain, instead of using the first finger to play A and E; this may be an echo of his early years, when he tuned the violin EAEA for tunes in the key of A, thus playing those notes with an open string. In his first performance of "Money Musk" (here), he conflates the tune with another old British and American reel, "The Devil's Dream," well-known in the tunebooks and in Northern American tradition but less usual in the South, and in his second performance (AFS 13037a06) other third strains seem to compete for his imagination. His third performance (AFS 13705b16) contains three parts, and the final performance (AFS 13705b17) contains four.A performance of "Money Musk" including four strains, learned from Henry Reed, appeared on the Hollow Rock String Band's first album (Kanawha 311), whence it has had some circulation among musicians in the old-time music revival.