Ave Maria

I will be departing from my tradition of discussing musical theater and attempt to stay off my soap box as I take a look at "Ave Maria". Which "Ave Maria" you ask? All of them. My reasons for focusing on "Ave Maria" are due to two comments. The first was after being told someone learned the Schubert "Ave Maria" because they thought it was pretty but had no idea what they were singing about. The second reason happened as someone told me the Gounod/Bach "Ave Maria" sounded like the Bach Prelude I was playing and how weird it was that it was a piano solo after it was a song. For those of you who don't know, Gounod wrote the "Ave Maria" in 1859 to fit the pre-existing J. S. Bach Prelude in C major, although most people sing it in E flat these days. Bach died in 1750. He was not around when Gounod created the melody.

Ave Maria is a prayer, a very Catholic prayer, although it is considered part of the Universal Church. The history of the prayer begins around 1050, often said in some version of The Office. It began as an introduction with a genuflection and sometimes a penitential exercise. St. Elizabeth added to it, and it grew after it was criticized for not having a petition and swirled and changed until its current form, found in a breviary of Camaldolese Monks in 1514.

Ave Maria [Hail Mary]
gratia plena: [full of Grace:]
Dominus tecum [the Lord is with thee]
benedicta tu in mulieribus [blessed art thou among women]
Sancta Maria mater Dei [Holy Mary mother of God]
ora pronobis peccatoribus, nun [pray for us sinners, now]
et in mortis nostrae. [and at the hour of our death]

The first three lines are the words of the Angel Gabriel (Luke 1:28) when he addresses Mary. The words of the fourth line belong to St. Elizabeth greeting Mary. The fifth line is praise of Mary, and the final lines are a petition for help. While these were added after criticism that a prayer is not a prayer until there is a petition folded in, I find this to be a solemn and sincere petition.

People are correct, it is very beautiful. Prayer is very beautiful, and paraphrasing St. Augustine, when we sing, our prayer is twice as strong. Schubert wrote the following to his father after his work was performed: "They also wondered greatly at my piety, which I expressed in a hymn to the Holy Virgin and which, it appears, grips every soul and turns it to devotion."


Schubert's Version:


I think this is the Caccini version: