Sigh no more, Ladies for 2 soprano or tenor recorders

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Description

Instrumental arrangement of a vocal duo by Richard John Samuel Stevens (born 27 March 1757 in London, England), an English composer and organist. (His first post was as organist at St Michael’s Cornhill, where I used to sing many years later!)

“Sigh no more ladies” comes from Shakespeare’s play “Much ado about nothing”:

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no more
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny.