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.