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Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
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Item Title
Money Musk
Alternate Title(s)
Sir Archibald Grant of Moniemusk's Reel
Killie Krankie
Highland Fling
Author/Creator
Collector: Jabbour, Alan
Performer: Reed, Henry; fiddle
Performer: Jabbour, Alan; fiddle
Created/Published
October 28, 1967
Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Virginia (Giles County)
Notes
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 this performance) are unique to his performance. Note how at one point 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" (AFS 13035b11), 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 (here) 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.
Key: A
Meter: 4/4
Strains: 4 (high-low-lower-higher, 2-2-2-2)
Rendition: 3-1r-2r-2-4r-(spoken)-4r-3-4r-(spoken)-4-(spoken)-4-3-4r-1-3-4r
Phrase Structure: AB GH QRQS VW (aba'c ghgi qrqs qrtu vwxy)
Compass: 15
Spoken: [after first part]/ALAN JABBOUR: Now, could you just play that extra part one more time? [Moves microphone] It's about time we set up again.[middle of performance]/ALAN JABBOUR: And didn't, once when you played it, didn't you go . . . . [Plays fiddle] Or didn't you do that? [Plays fiddle again]/HENRY REED: Yeah, I did./ALAN JABBOUR: I didn't think you did that the last time./HENRY REED: No, I didn't./ALAN JABBOUR: [Laughs]/HENRY REED: No. [Plays fiddle] That's the way it goes./ALAN JABBOUR: Alright.
Recording chronology: 169
Duration: 2 minutes, 33 seconds
Subject
Breakdowns
Reels
Fiddle tunes
Instrumentals--fiddle
Ethnography
Music
United States--Virginia--Giles County--Glen Lyn
Object Type
Medium
sound recording
Language
English
Call Number
AFC LWO 5379 reel 3B, AFS 13705B:17
Digital ID
afcreed 13705b17
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcreed.13705b17
Related Audio
Money Musk [AFS 13035b11]
Money Musk [AFS 13037a06]
Money Musk [AFS 13705b16]
Money Musk [transcription] [Transcribed]