As we approach the Feast of Mary’s Nativity, what better time to reflect on musical settings of our most-recited prayer to her, the Hail Mary.
At the vast majority of our weddings and funerals, the engaged couple or the grieving family asks for the Ave Maria to be sung. Often, it is the moment of the Mass that moves even the most stouthearted to tears. There is one setting of the Ave Maria that has boomed in popularity above all others — Franz Schubert's setting, composed in 1825. Schubert’s Ave Maria is so popular, in fact, that we music directors can be about 99% sure this is the one people are requesting, even if they don’t know the composer. Schubert’s Ave Maria is beautiful, for sure, but is it so beautiful as to eclipse all the others? After all, the Ave Maria text has been set to music time and time again, often in extraordinary ways. Consider, for instance, the Ave Maria by Russian composer Vladimir Vavilov, composed in a decade when Catholic themes were unheard of in contemporary Russian music. The work, released anonymously, was later misattributed to Caccini. The past few years, our choirs have begun the tradition of singing an Ave Maria by the Renaissance composer Jacob Arcadelt on Christmas Eve. There is also a version by Charles Gounod, the music of which is an arrangement of a famous piano Prelude by J.S. Bach. French organists Cesar Franck and Jehan Alain wrote stunningly-prayerful settings of the Ave Maria. All of these settings, and countless others, are potential meditations for a funeral or wedding, as is the precursor of all, the Gregorian chant Ave Maria, whose melodic contours inflect the text with such meaning as to bring the Hail Mary into vivid focus. I invite you to take the time to listen to these various settings, by clicking on the underlined links within these paragraphs. Which is your favorite? Which brings the prayer to life for you? Do you know of another beautiful setting to add to the list?
6 Comments
Joan Dollinger
9/5/2020 02:28:05 pm
Thank you, Chelsea, for the selections of Ave Maria! Do you know if/where the score for the music by Alain and Arcadelt might be available online?
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Chelsea Barton
9/6/2020 05:12:16 am
Hi Joan - A few arrangements of the Arcadelt are available on CPDL: www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Ave_Maria_(Arcadelt-Dietsch)
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Peggy Rosenthal
9/7/2020 07:24:10 am
Chelsea, THANK YOU for putting these links together. George and I have just had a wonderfully prayerful time listening to them all.
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Chelsea Barton
9/8/2020 05:42:22 am
You are welcome, Peggy! I'm so glad you and George enjoyed listening. I understand your reservation with the Gounod (I feel the same), and the unusual harmonies in the Alain do take some getting used to.
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George Dardess
9/7/2020 07:27:08 am
Chelsea--
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Chelsea Barton
9/8/2020 05:48:23 am
Thank you for your thoughts, George. Gregorian chant is very special--it never obscures or distracts from the text, but brings the meaning of the text to life. On a suggestion from a friend, I have been singing the Rosary recently, with the Gregorian Ave Maria, and find that it makes my prayer so much more fervent. The contours of the melody seem to fit the words of each phrase so perfectly.
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