Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
Ave Maria | |
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Ave Maria | |
Language | Latin |
Based on | Bach's Prelude No. 1, BWV 846 |
Published |
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Scoring |
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"Ave Maria" is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin prayer Ave Maria, originally published in 1853 as "Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach".[1] The piece consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod that he superimposed over an only very slightly changed version of Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of his The Well-Tempered Clavier, 1722. The 1853 publication has French text, but it is the 1859 version with the Latin Ave Maria which became popular.
History
Gounod improvised the melody, and his future father-in-law
Alongside
Later in his career, Gounod composed an unrelated setting of Ave Maria for a four-part SATB choir.
Composition
Gounod based the work on Bach's prelude, which is a study in
Recordings
Alessandro Moreschi, one of the last castrato singers, performed "Ave Maria" and several other pieces on recordings for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company in the early 1900s.
Noa (Achinoam Nini) performed her own lyrics for "Ave Maria" for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1994.[5]
In 2003, synthpop duo Erasure did a cover of the song, which was released as a B-side to their Solsbury Hill single.[6]
A rendition by Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin from their album Hush was used as the main theme in the 2017 Palme d'Or winning Swedish film The Square.[7]
The piece also features as a recurring theme during
References
- ^ "[Méditation sur le 1er prélude de piano de S. Bach. CG 89a". Bibliothèque nationale de France Catalogue Général. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- ^ "La musique religieuse de Charles Gounod". Musica et memoria (in French). Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ^ "Score: Gounod Bach". Gallica. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- JSTOR 41639775.
- ^ "Noa performs Ave Maria at Vatican City with Pope John Paul II (1994) | Performing for Pope John Paul II in the Vatican all those years ago, the first Jews to ever do so, was a life-changing moment for Gil Dor and myself.... | By Noa (Achinoam Nini)", Facebook, retrieved 2023-12-29
- ^ "Erasure - Solsbury Hill Album Reviews, Songs & More", AllMusic.com, retrieved 2023-12-29
- ^ "Yo-Yo Ma Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
External links
- Ave Maria: Scores 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)