Haunting, Graceful and Gone: She Moved Through the Fair

I've mentioned this one before, and it's one of the classic Dead Lover songs, with versions by dozens of famous artists as well as thousands upon thousands of lesser singers like myself.

"She Moved Through the Fair" (Roud 861) has been kicking around for over a century, though it's hard to tell exactly how MUCH longer, exactly. It seems the currently known set of lyrics were pieced together and written in part by Irish poet and playwright Padraic Colum, but it's likely some version of the song, and certainly the  melody, existed long before that.

Without getting too deep into the music theory, tune is in mixolydian mode, that is based around what would be the fifth tone of a modern "major" scale, giving it an ancient and -to our modern ears - somewhat exotic sound. I can't think of too many late-19th or early-20th Century folk ballads that rely heavily on this mode, but it was common in some older music. This is all pretty much speculation on my part, as I don't have sources to confirm this.

The story of the song is particularly moving, as it fixes on the cheerful parting of young lovers and a subsequent, unnamed tragedy. The singer's beloved tells him that her parents approve of their upcoming marriage, and they part lovingly. "It will not be long, love, till our wedding day" she says. He watches her move gracefully across the fairgrounds, not knowing that it would be the last he would see her alive.

Whatever happens, happens, and his beloved is no more, and in the last verse the narrator tells of his dream, in which his dead lover came to his bedroom and once again repeated her parting words, "it will not be long love, till our wedding day."

It's a lovely melody, and the imagery of her moving across the fairgrounds "like a swan in the evening" is pretty evocative. As such some singers have tried to find ways to present the song without its tragic elements, usually omitting the last verse or more often the next to the last verse and its line "that was the last that I saw of my dear," making the dream sequence one of anticipation rather than pathos. Obviously, I'm not on board with that, and not just because of my affection for Dead Lover songs. The whole feel of the piece is just too dependent on that melancholy, haunting mood to be a cheerful song. If you want a happy song about getting married, go to Scotland, the West of Ireland is the place for ghosts.

Folk Songs and the Headlines

The label "folk music" is a pretty broad one in modern times, often being applied to all sorts of contemporary recorded music that features primarily acoustic instrumentation, or even electrified genres of pop, rock and metal that draw on elements of traditional stories, melodies or instrumentation. 

But for the sake of this blog, I'll stick with the dictionary meaning of music of unknown authorship that's passed down orally through a popular tradition, or music by known authors that has passed into the tradition of folk performance. The bulk of my own repertoire consists of just such music, primarily from English-speaking traditions from Western Europe or North America. Not because I think English-language folk songs are inherently better than those of other traditions, but mostly because I'm too lazy to figure out songs in other tongues. 

But also, I fit the "bearded guy with an acoustic guitar" image so nicely, why fight it? 

While there are new songs being absorbed into the folk tradition all the time (though I suspect current copyright laws slow that down some) the bulk of the material is quite old. And part of what makes it "traditional" music is that, as it's been passed through all the countless hands and voices, it's been changed and polished and re-imagined many different ways. And a lot of it is forgotten or set aside, while things are added, until all that remains are elements that for one reason or another resonate with common feelings and experience. 

A lot of my love for folk songs is rooted in this, how it provides a common thread running from people who lived and died generations ago to our modern selves. And how, while the songs change and evolve much like our lives, we still hold something at the heart of them in common. We may not be a lowly potato farmer conscripted to fight in some colony-grabbing conflict far away (there's a lot of corn and dairy farmers around here too), but we understand the fear and loneliness and the joy of coming home. 

But this blog is, after all, about the darker elements of folk music. The heartbreak, the loss, the pining away and, of course, the murder. 

This too, speaks to something we can relate to and see reflected in our modern lives. Killings committed in a fit of jealous rage, abuse, fights over the attention of a woman or man. And, of course, there's the unrequited attraction. 

In the real world, if you're interested in someone, and they're not interested in you, a fairly normal response is to mope a bit, maybe write a sad poem or song and eventually get on with your life. In a folk song, like Barbara Allen, you also have the option of just dropping dead like William did (as I've said before, these songs are terrible life advice). 

But in both folk songs and the real world, there's a more horrific path that some choose to take. Killing the object of your affection. 

Not long ago I did a blog on "The Banks of the Ohio," and since then I've been practicing it quite a bit to polish it up for recording. At the same time I'd read the news of one of the recent school shootings (and don't think that having to say "one of" in regards to this isn't more heartbreaking than any song I could sing) and read about how the killer apparently had a thing for one of the victims, and was rejected by her, which may have inspired him to shoot up the school. 

The viewpoint character in the song doesn't go on a killing spree, but there's enough in common that it's definitely colored my own feelings towards the song. I'm not going to stop playing it, but I'm definitely more aware of how the events of the thing look in the real world. And it's also got me thinking about just how many old songs there are about men killing women in a sudden fit of rage, or out of jealousy. 

I think this sense of rage and misplaced entitlement we see in young men like the school shooter and other examples of real world monsters was well known to our forebears. And maybe they were aware of the darker parts of our own natures and found a way to safely channel those irrational, violent impulses was through song and story. And maybe also there was the eternal fascination we all have with terrible people and horrific acts. And maybe also there was a bit of a warning in there. And, considering how many times the subject is caught and hanged, there's a desire to make these vicious killers face, in song at least, the consequences and justice that they avoided in real life all too often.