Tuesday 28 September 2010
Tune of the Day: She Moved Through the Fair
Traditional Irish air
This traditional Irish folk song exists in a number of versions, and has been recorded many times by artists such as Margaret Barry, Anne Briggs, Dominic Behan, Alan Stivell, Loreena McKennitt and Sinéad O'Connor. The song was first collected in County Donegal by poet Padraic Colum and musicologist Herbert Hughes, and published in a work entitled Irish country songs in 1909. According to Ossian's Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland, the tune dates back to Medieval times.
This tune is in mixolydian mode, which is like major mode with the exception that the seventh note of the scale is lowered by a semitone. In the key of A mixolydian, for instance, you would play G-natural instead of G-sharp.