Ave Maria (Bach / Gounod)

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The Ave Maria by "Bach / Gounod", actually Méditation sur le premier prélude de Bach , is a composition by Charles Gounod for voice (or a melodic instrument ) and piano using the prelude in C major from Volume 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as the text of the Ave Maria and one of the most famous pieces of classical music.

Emergence

Gounod composed the piece in 1852 as an improvisation exercise during his studies. In 1859 it was underlaid with the text of the Latin prayer Ave Maria.

construction

The work is based on Prelude No. 1 in C major from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier ( BWV 846), a harmonic study of broken chords. Gounod adopted the sentence largely unchanged. He preceded the first four bars, a C major cadence , as a prelude, and then repeated it with the introduction of his melody. After the original bar 22, he inserted a bar added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke , which mediates between two diminished seventh chords and creates space for the singing voice for another expressive “Maria!”. He also added a tempo specification ( moderato ), pedal indications for the piano and dynamic designations. He set his own melody with the prayer text over the accompaniment thus obtained.

classification

This puts Gounod in the long line of composers who approach Bach by using his works as the basis for their own compositions (further examples are the Ten Preludes after the Well-Tempered Clavier Opus 137a for violoncello and piano by Ignaz Moscheles or the Fantasia Contrappuntistica by Ferruccio Busoni ).

The hybrid composition thus represents a combination of the harmonic development and the movement pattern of Bach's prelude, which is used purely for accompaniment, and Gounod's melody with its wide range and wide-ranging dynamics, which stylistically pushes the result strongly into the romantic idiom.

“Bach / Gounod” is usually given as the composer - also to distinguish the composition from Gounod's own setting of Ave Maria.

reception

Version for piano and cello.

The work is still very popular and is often used for the musical arrangement of festive occasions. In addition to Schubert's version, the Ave Maria von Bach / Gounod has become a fixture at funerals and wedding fairs. In addition to the original version for piano and voice, numerous arrangements have been made for practically every conceivable combination of instruments. In particular, many pop musicians and vocal soloists have included the piece in their repertoire.

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