Hail Mary Moments with Schubert's Ave Maria
The Best Moments
Ellens Gesang III in B-flat major, D. 839, Op. 52 No. 6
I'm Schubert, and I'm happy to share the best moments of my Ave Maria with you. You'll hear how one gently arching vocal line, floating above a steadily rolling piano, can turn a quiet prayer into something that feels close to a hush falling over a room. If you'd like to learn to recognize this song when it comes on, and pieces by my fellow composers too, you can head to the Trainer and give it a try.
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A Prayer That Started Out as a Walk in the Highlands
I wrote this song in 1825 during my summer holiday in Upper Austria, and it begins with the piano rocking along in a smooth, rolling pattern, like a rowboat that has no plans to go anywhere fast. Then a woman's voice floats in with one long, calm melody, and the funny part is that she isn't singing in a church at all, because she's Ellen, a character in a Walter Scott poem.
In Which the Melody Takes a Few Stairs
In the middle I let the melody climb a little higher, so you can hear Ellen's prayer growing more earnest while the piano keeps rolling underneath without missing a beat. I set Adam Storck's German translation of Scott, so the Latin words everyone sings today were fitted to my tune later, which means my melody ended up with a ready-made new text that I never wrote.
The Song That Got Invited to Everything
By the end I let the music settle back down to the quiet calm where it began, and the last notes fade out as gently as someone closing a door on a sleeping child. That peacefulness may explain why people now play it at weddings, funerals and Christmas services, and why it even turned up in Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940, right after Mussorgsky's loud and frightening Night on Bald Mountain.
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I hope you enjoyed learning about the best moments of my Ave Maria. Looking back, it still amuses me that a song written on a summer holiday has travelled so far from where it began. Ellen sang her prayer in a Walter Scott poem, and today people hear it at weddings, at funerals and in Christmas services. I find that quietly wonderful, because the melody seems to fit whatever moment people bring to it. There is still a good deal more to explore about this song. You could look at how Franz Liszt arranged it for solo piano in three versions, or at how it found its way into Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940. You could also wander through the rest of the seven songs from The Lady of the Lake, which belong to the same family as Ellen's prayer. If any of that sparks your curiosity, I invite you to click on the links provided and keep exploring Ave Maria. Then listen once more, and see what you hear in it this time.