She Moved Through the Fair

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"She Moved Through the Fair" (or "She Moves Through the Fair") is a traditional Irish folk song, existing in a number of versions and which has been recorded many times.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The song was first collected in Donegal by poet Padraic Colum and musicologist Herbert Hughes, and published by Boosey & Hawkes in London in a work entitled Irish Country Songs in 1909.[1] The tune is in mixolydian mode.[2] The lyrics were also published in Colum's 1916 collection Wild Earth: And Other Poems (though the book doesn't mention their traditional origin).[3]

A longer variant of the song is called "Our Wedding Day". A related song, "Out of the Window", was collected by Sam Henry, from Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, Northern Ireland, around 1930, and published in Henry's Songs of the People.[4] Another song, "I Once Had a True Love", also appears to be related, as it shares some lyrics with "She Moved Through the Fair".[5]

The traditional singer Paddy Tunney learned it in County Fermanagh and recorded it in 1965. Other singers who sang it in the 50s/60s were Dominic Behan and Anne Briggs. It was a popular song among members of the Traveller community in Ireland by that time.

Fairport Convention recorded the song in 1968, adopting the style of the song from the influential traveling singer Margaret Barry, though she herself had learned it from a vinyl recording made by the great Count John McCormack at Abbey Road in 1941. Also of note are the recordings of the song by Alan Stivell in 1973.

[edit] Lyrics

One version of the lyrics is as follows:

My young love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kine.
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, Love,
Till our wedding day.
As she stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there.
And then she made her way homeward,
With one star awake,
As the swan in the evening
Moved over the lake.
The people were saying,
No two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow
That never was said.
And I smiled as she passed
With her goods and her gear,
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.
Last night she came to me,
My dead love came in.
So softly she came
That her feet made no din.
As she laid her hand on me,
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day.

[edit] Variants

Colum may have altered the traditional words significantly, perhaps cutting a number of verses; the variant of the song called Our Wedding Day has ten verses, to Colum's four. The song is often shortened further by omitting the third verse (above).

Several versions of the lyrics are in current use. For example, in the first line of Colum's version published in Wild earth:

My young love said to me, "My brothers won't mind,

the word 'brothers' is usually changed to 'mother.'

Similarly, the second line:

And my parents won't slight you for your lack of kine. [kind = goods or commodities[6]]

is usually rendered:

And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind.

or even as:

And my father won't slight you for your lack of kine. [kine = cattle]

The original "My dead love" in verse 4 is often rendered as "my dear love", "my own love", or "my young love" (particularly when verse 3, which implies that the woman may have died, is omitted). In Colum's version, this final appearance of the woman is in a dream, whereas other versions imply she is a ghost.

In the variant called Our Wedding Day, the woman goes into the man's bedroom while he is asleep, but she is not dead; she then runs off with another suitor, and the man joins the army.

[edit] Alternative versions recounted by Paddy Tunney

The traditional singer Paddy Tunney relates[7] how Colum "wrote" the song after returning from a literary gathering in Donegal with Herbert Hughes and others. Tunney suggests, however, that it would be more accurate to say that Colum simply improved an original traditional song which at that time had splintered into many variations throughout Ireland.

Tunney himself collected one version from an Irish singer called Barney McGarvey. This version was called I Once Had A True Love. The opening four lines are reminiscent of She Moved Through The Fair and the second four lines are unmistakably similar.

The words to the first verse are:

I once had a sweet-heart, I loved her so well

I loved her far better than my tongue could tell

Her parents they slight me for my want of gear

So adieu to you Molly, since your are not here

I dreamed last night that my true love came in

So softly she came that her feet made no din

She stepped up to me and this she did say

It will not be long love, till our wedding day


The remaining two verses, however, are quite different. Nevertheless, this opening verse shows how songs could be changed and adapted as they were passed down in the oral tradition.

Tunney also points to a version of the song which he learnt from his mother which she called, My Young Love Said to Me. The first verse is virtually the same as Colum's but the remaining three verses are quite different and describe how the woman in the song went off with another man. It is as follows:


My young love said to me, my mother won't mind

And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind

And she went away from me and this she did say:

It will not be long now till our wedding day.


She went away from me and she moved through the fair

Where hand-slapping dealers' loud shouts rent the air

The sunlight around her did sparkle and play

Saying it will not be long now till our wedding day.

When dew falls on meadow and moths fill the night

When glow of the greeesagh on hearth throws half-light

I'll slip from the casement and we'll run away

And it will not be long love till our wedding day


According to promise at midnight he rose

But all that he found was the downloaded clothes

The sheets they lay empty 'twas plain for to see

And out of the window with another went she


Colum's version is more subtle. It gives no explanation for the young woman's disappearance, which gives the song a sense of mystery and allows the listener the freedom to interpret it in his or her own way.

[edit] Recordings

In recent times, following Fairport Convention's version of the song in the sixties, hundreds of artists have recorded this song in its traditional form. Most have kept to some form of the traditional lyrics: however, the versions by Sinéad O'Connor (as used in the soundtrack of the film Michael Collins), Trees and Nana Mouskouri change the gender of the pronouns and so the song became "He Moved Through the Fair". O'Connor and Trees' versions keep the original "She Moved Through the Fair" title on their sleeves, although Mouskouri changes the name to suit the variant. An alternative version of the lyrics was also used in Mary Black's version of the song.

Other notable versions:

  • Anne Briggs sang an unaccompanied three-verse version in 1963.
  • Alfred Deller performed a version of it with Desmond Dupre, for the Folksongs album.
  • Alan Stivell's 1972 version, sung in English, is also very close to the original song.
  • Roger Whittaker recorded a version for his 1977 release, Folksongs of our Island Vol 1.
  • In 1986, Eyeless in Gaza featured an a cappella version on the album Back from the Rains.
  • All About Eve featured a version on their eponymous 1988 debut album, and often performed it live in their early days. Following an acrimonious departure from the band, guitarist Tim Bricheno would later use a sample of the vocal in the song "Wrong Thing", recorded by his later band, XC-NN.
  • In 1989 Simple Minds recorded a song called "Belfast Child", which made it to No. 1 in the UK Charts. This song uses the traditional tune associated with "She Moved Through the Fair", but with completely different words. The song appears on their album Street Fighting Years.
  • Marianne Faithfull recorded it for her album North Country Maid in 1966 and also featured a version on her 1990 album Blazing Away, and has often sung it in concert
  • Irish Boyband Boyzone performed it on the album A Different Beat in 1996.
  • For the Irish musical Lord of the Dance, which began touring in 1996, the musical score composed by Ronan Hardiman includes a version of the song from the female point of view sung by Anne Buckley.
  • Bert Jansch recorded a version for his 1998 album Toy Balloon.
  • In 1998, Sarah Brightman recorded a version (as "He Moved Through the Fair") as a B-side to her "Eden" single.
  • Alan Hacker and Tony Coe recorded an arrangement by Hacker, under the title "One Star Awake", on their 1999 album Sun moon and stars.
  • Charlie Zahm recorded it on his 1999 album The Celtic Balladeer.
  • Sissel and The Chieftains performed the song live at the Ole Blues Music Festival in Bergen, Norway on April 29, 2001, which can be heard at archive.org.
  • Anthony Kearns recorded it on the 2002 album The Very Best of the Irish Tenors.
  • Wayne Shorter recorded an instrumental arrangement as "She Moves Through the Fair" on his 2003 album Alegría.
  • Nyle Wolfe included a version in his 2009 album Home Ground.
  • Culann's Hounds are joined by Sara Gardner on their album One for the Road.
  • The Borderers - an Australian band also recorded the song and it was used as a movie soundtrack sometime in the 90's.
  • Jim Causley recorded a Devonshire version on his 2011 album Dumnonia.
  • Young Australian singer/harpist Siobhan Owen recorded a version on her 2009 album Celestial Echoes.
  • Alan Coady and Zoë Moskal Guy recorded an arrangement by Alan on their album "Love Burns", 2011;

[edit] References

  1. ^ Irish country songs / collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes. London ; New York : Boosey & Hawkes, 1909-1915
  2. ^ Allen, Patrick (1999). Developing Singing Matters. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. pp. 22. ISBN 0-435-81018-9. OCLC 42040205. 
  3. ^ Facsimile - see page 26.
  4. ^ Songs of the People: Selections from the Sam Henry Collection, edited by John Moulden. Blackstaff Press, 1979. ISBN 0856401323
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ The Stone Fiddle - My Way to Traditional Song, Appletree Press, 1991 pp152

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" by Gene Pitney & Marc Almond		 UK number-one single
February 19, 1989
"Belfast Child"
by Simple Minds		 Succeeded by
"Too Many Broken Hearts" by Jason Donovan
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