She Moved Through the Fair: Bagpipe

"She Moved Through the Fair" is an old traditional Irish Folk song. It has been found both in Ireland and in Scotland, but scraps of the song were first collected in County Donegal by the Longford poet Padraic Colum and the musicologist Herbert Hughes in 1881. There are many versions of this tune that have been produced by many artists over the years and is a haunting love story.

Below are the original words to the tune:

"She Moved Through the Fair"
My young love said to me, “My brothers won't mind,
And my parents won't slight you for your lack of kind.”
Then she stepped away from me and this she did say:
“It will not be long, love, till our wedding day.”

She stepped away from me and she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her go here and go there,
Then 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 were e'er 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 dreamt it last night that my young love came in,
So softly she entered, her feet made no din;
She came close beside me, and this she did say,
“It will not be long, love, till our wedding day.”

Dark Isle Piper:
"The first time I heard this tune was by one of my favorite celtic musician, Loreena McKennitt, on her Elemental Album produced in 1985. McKennitt's haunting voice along with the beautiful lyrics and the Mixolydian tune made me fall in love with it immediately. The bagpipes are also Mixolydian. This is my version of the tune and my telling of this story through the beautiful haunting strains of the Highland Bagpipes."