Finding and Working With Weep You No More Sad Fountains Sheet Music
"Weep You No More Sad Fountains" is a madrigal by Thomas Morley from his 1597 collection "Madrigals to Five Voices." It remains one of the most performed English Renaissance pieces in amateur and conservatory choral settings. The piece calls for five independent vocal parts, usually organized as SSATB or a mix that covers soprano, alto, tenor, and bass ranges. If you are looking for Weep You No More Sad Fountains Sheet Music, there are several published editions and a few free public domain sources worth knowing about. The most commonly used published editions come from Dover Publications, Oxford Choir Classics, and Carus-Verlag. Dover's version is cheap and widely available but has known errata. The Carus edition includes fingered piano reduction and more careful editorial notes. If you need it for free, IMSLP hosts the original 1597 madrigal collection scan and also several modern arrangers' work in the public domain. The Carulli string quartet arrangement is sometimes listed separately on the site. I once bought a Dover reprint and discovered that bar 23 in the second treble had a G natural printed where the original 1597 setting clearly shows a G sharp. I flagged it against the facsimile page online, corrected it in the score, and sent a note to Dover. Their errata sheet now lists it. It means you should always cross-reference any cheaper edition with at least one other source before performing from it.
What the piece actually requires
The madrigal sits in D major with a short move into B minor around the middle section. The texture is imitative but not as dense as later Renaissance polyphony. Each voice enters with the same melodic fragment at different pitch levels, then separates into independent counterpoint. The tempo marking in most modern editions is approximately quarter note equals 108 to 120, depending on venue acoustics and singer competence. The trick is keeping the suspension resolutions clean. The tenor and second treble clash on several prepared dissonances that resolve into the harmony below. If the tenor drags even slightly, the resolution sounds muddy rather than intentional. I learned this the hard way during a college ensemble rehearsal when the tenor section was sitting too far back in the blend. The suspensions on bars 18 and 19 simply disappeared under the soprano line. We fixed it by having the tenors sing a measure of just the suspended notes at half volume, which made them hear their own dissonance and naturally pull back into the right dynamic.
Performance considerations
The piece is usually performed a cappella, which is the default for Renaissance madrigals. Some groups use a string quartet doubling the vocal lines, which can help intonation but risks flattening the vocal independence that makes the piece work. If your ensemble lacks a full five-part range, you can reduce to SATB by merging the two treble parts or dropping the second treble entirely, though the counterpoint suffers noticeably when you remove that middle voice. A common pitfall is over-singing the dynamics. Morley's text is pastoral and restrained. The piece does not benefit from loud, dramatic swells. A typical effective range is pp to mf, with the B minor middle section moving to just above mezzo but never pushing into fortissimo. Singers tend to crank the volume on the imitative entries because they want to be heard, which ruins the pointillist texture. The effect depends on each voice being audible in isolation but never overpowering the group. If you need a piano reduction for accompaniment, the Carus edition includes one. It is functional but not idiomatic piano writing. The arrangement is more of a simplified score than a concert transcription. For actual performance with piano support, some directors prefer the William Albright arrangement, which is harmonically fuller but changes the character noticeably. It works if you need accompaniment and do not care about historical fidelity.
Get the Full Details
Common sources and a warning
IMSLP is the main free source. Search the Morley Thomas madrigals collection and look for the 1597 first edition facsimile. Dover publishes a standalone edition that is inexpensive. Carol Horn Press and Shawnee Press occasionally carry choral folder versions for school ensembles. Commercial recordings by The King's Singers and Fretwork are useful reference material for tempo and phrasing decisions. The main limitation of most available sheet music is editorial interference. Modern editors sometimes add articulation marks, dynamics, and even altered notes that Morley did not write. These additions sound fine in isolation but can distort the modal and contrapuntal logic. The Dover edition is the worst offender I have encountered. The Carus edition is more conservative. When in doubt, consult the 1597 print itself, which is available as a scanned image through the British Library online catalog or the Internet Archive. Comparing one modern edition to the facsimile will catch most problems in about ten minutes.
