Annotation:She moved through the fair
X:1 T:She moved through the fair Z:transcribed by Gregory Taylor M:4/4 L:1/8 K:Dmix (D4 DE)F2|G3 F3 G2|A3 ((AA4)|A6) (GE)| (C4 C)D E2|(D8|D6) AB| c3 d3 A2|B3 (AA4|A6) F2|G3 F3 G2|(A8|A6) AB| c3 d3 A2|B3 ((A A4)|A6) F2|G3 F3 G2|(A8|A8)|(D4 D)E F2| G3 F3 G2|(A4 A)A (A2|A6) (GE)|(C4 C)C D2|((D8|D8)|D8) ||
SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR. AKA – “Our Wedding Day,” “Out of the Window.” Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. John Loesberg records that the song was collected in County Donegal by Herbert Hughes, and the words were rewritten by Padraic Colum. They begin:
My young love said to me, 'My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kine
And she stepp'd away from me and this she did say:
It will not be long love till our wedding day.
She walked away from me and she moved through the fair;
She won several goldfish and one teddy bear;
And then she went onward with one star awake;
It was too dark to see, and she fell in the lake.
John Moulden remarks that a song called “Out of the Window” is an antecedent version of the song Colum transformed into "She moved through the fair." He notes there are three sources for the song: one recorded from Robert Cinnamond, another from Eddie Butcher and a third printed in the Sam Henry collection. All modern performances seem to stem from those sources, including the late Paddy Tunney, who adapted Robert Cinnamond’s version.