The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria.
Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in 1859, his Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846), composed by J. S. Bach some 137 years earlier. (Gounod adds one bar so as to smooth out a rough change in harmony in the prelude.)
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There are many different instrumental arrangements of the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, including for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. It is often performed in Christian wedding ceremonies. Many pop and opera singers, such as Beyonce Knowles and Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs have recorded it during the twentieth century.
Later in his career, Gounod also composed a setting of Ave Maria for a four-part SATB choir, which is musically dissimilar to the more well-known solo version.
See also
- Ellens dritter Gesang also known as the "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert.
External links
- Ave Maria available at the International Music Score Library Project
- Free sheet music for voice and piano on Cantorion.org
- Free scores of the Ave Maria in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores of the SATB setting of the Ave Maria in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
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