© ericdentinger.com
2008-2025
Eric Maclewis
She Moved Through The Fair
- based upon Sinead O'Connor's version -
My young love said to me
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kind
She went away from me
And this she did say:
It will not be long Love
'Til our wedding day
She went away from me
And she moved through the fair
And slowly I watched her
Move here and move there
She went her way homeward
With one star awake
As the swan in the evening
Moves 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) (*)
I dreamed last night
That my own love came in
She came in so sweetly
Her feet made no din
She stepped upside me
And this she did say:
It will not be long
'Til our wedding day
(*) verse added later by Padraic Colum
The song is probably of Irish origin although it can be found on both sides of the Irish Sea, in Ireland and Scotland.
The air seems to belong to an old background - even very old - especially because of its melodic structure.
The lyrics coexist in several versions, especially depending on whether the deceased love is a woman or a man as in Sinead O'Connor's version.
They have often been claimed by this or that collector (like Padraic Colum) who most often completed pre-existing verses whose origin is probably lost forever...
The bagpipe score corresponds to a sung verse but of course differs in its very "square" play unlike the song interpreted in rubato mode...
SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR
SLOW AIR
- score by Eric Maclewis with CelticPipes