Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)

Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Art song by Bach/Gounod
	Charles Gounod in 1859
Native name	Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach
Key	C major
Text	Ave Maria
Language	Latin
Based on	Bach's Prelude No. 1, BWV 846
Published	1853 (French text); 1859 (Latin text);
Scoring	voice; piano;

"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.

^ "[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.

[1] "[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.

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