She Moved Through the Fair

Good morning Patrons! This post is a big one for me. I think of Davy Graham as possibly the most important figure in the British folk revival, so it is an honor to represent him with such an exciting piece of music. This month we're looking at "She Moved Through the Fair," which I transcribed from the live recording in 1963 on the television show Hullabaloo. We are very lucky footage was preserved from the original broadcast and is available on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/CYABfZ7HMhM

My performance is live here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzp1W68Hxlg

The Patreon lesson for this piece is here:
https://youtu.be/Yy0JMx84T54

This is a monumental piece, one I've been struggling to understand and put on paper for almost 15 years. It wasn't until a long-time penpal of mine and Patron recommended it here as a potential posting that I considered challenging myself with it. I've never seen anyone attempt to accurately play this as Davy did back in the early 60s.

I'm still piecing together my research, trying to get an accurate chronology of the various recordings. It appears the first recording was issued in 1963 on DECCA DFE 8538, a 7" EP titled The Thamesiders and Davy Graham: From a London Hootenanny. This was later reissued as part of the 1965 Folk, Blues, and Beyond album, but not until 2002. Here he is playing in DADGAD but tuned down a half step, so the open strings are DbAbDbGbAbDb.

There were a few other commercially released recordings from the mid 60s, all taken from live performances, his guitar tuned down a half step in all of them.

The "Hullabaloo" performance is unique because he is tuned so low, roughly 3 half-steps, so the sounding open strings are close to B Gb B E Gb B. I have been trying to wrap my head around why he might have done this and more research needs to be done. He seems to have made a few appearances on the short lived Hullabaloo television show, it would be great if the footage would surface and we could see if he was using the same instrument and if it was also tuned so low.

"She Moved through the Fair" is a traditional Irish folk song, often performed as a very free, unaccompanied vocal. The first and last section of Graham's arrangement reflect this performance practice. Graham then moves to a strict meter for the middle section.

When reading through the sheet music, it is important to realize that the beginning and end are in free time and are to be performed expressively. Rhythms are only very approximate, and the barlines are used to indicate phrases. I put in all of the right hand editing because I felt it was the most important aspect of achieving Graham's level of nuance. The left hand is largely uncomplicated. I will have a lot to discuss with this one, so expect a private video in the next day or two where I play through the piece and try to unravel some of the mystery.

If you want to delve into the controversy, feel free to listen to Jimmy Page's "White Summer," a very strong musical borrowing, if you will, from Davey Graham's arrangement.

Kind Regards everybody,
Andy