DESCRIPTION:
Bid Adieu to Girlish Days
Recorded 22 July 1949 BBC radio
Sung by George Joyce
Pianist unknown
Words and air by James Joyce
Musical arrangement by Edmund Pendleton; 
Pendleton was born in Cincinnati on 1 March 1899, and later attended Columbia University in New York. In Europe, Pendleton studied under Paul Dukas for composition, Charles Münch, Pierre Monteux and Igor Markevitch for orchestral direction. He composed many works, including Alpine Concerto for flute (1943), Concerto for viola (1983), the Dream of Yann (opera for children, 1970), and the Miracle of the Nativity (a lyric drama written in 1975). Pendleton was the organist and choir master for the American Church in Paris from 1935 until 1975. He was also music critic for the New York Herald Tribune for twenty years. He maintained friendly relations with James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso. He died in Paris on 31 January 1987 and is buried at Guitrancourt Cemetery in Yvelines. (Wikipedia)

Song Lyrics
From Chamber Music by James Joyce
 
XI
Bid adieu, adieu, adieu,*
Bid adieu to girlish days,
Happy Love is come to woo
Thee and woo thy girlish ways —
The zone that doth become thee fair,
The snood upon thy yellow hair.
When thou hast heard his name upon
The bugles of the cherubim
Begin thou softly to unzone
Thy girlish bosom unto him
And softly to undo the snood
That is the sign of maidenhood.