Bid Adieu to Girlish Days is a short a cappella piece for 3-part men’s choir on a poem by James Joyce, in the spirit of madrigals such as John Farmer’s Fair Phyllis.
If you are interested in performing this piece, please contact me here.
Text by James Joyce from the collection Chamber Music.
Chamber Music: 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.
2014 November 3