Who wrote the FAMOUS version of "Ave Maria"?

Question

Not the Bach Prelude version which isn't at all the one you're all use to hearing...nor the Caccini version which is modern...I mean the FAMOUS VERSION, with achingly beautiful piano intro, followed by that soaring vocal that dovetails in...now, if you just jump to Wikipedia, it'll tell you it was "written in 1970", but i think it is WAY earlier that that, because my grandmother whose 80, SWEARS it was a common song in her church growing up....i'm talking about the version sung by Charlotte Church, Pavarotti, and countless others...the world famous one...who wrote that, and when? And to you older repliers, can anyone recall hearing this song before 1970?

Answer 1

Franz Schubert
lyrics by Sir Walter Scott
I believe the original composer was Bach

I can't recall when I first heard it, but I knew it wasn't a new song even then.

Answer 2

There are atleast 5 different popular "Ave Maria"s - the best known is of course by Franz Schubert. The others are by Composers Charles Gounod, Percy B. Kahn, Pietro Mascagni & Giuseppe Verdi.

Of course, all these were well before 1970! I lived in Germany in the '60s and have heard all of these.

The Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893) based on Bach's Prelude No 1 in C Major is my favourite - sung by leading Sopranos like Kiri, Jessye Norman etc.Visit the Charles Gounod Site and you will hear the song with the piano intro and the soaring violins as a beautiful orchestral version.

Pavarotti and Charlotte Church have also sung the Gounod version.

All Ave Marias can be heard on one CD bearing the song's title, available at amazon.com.

Answer 3

Ave Maria Not Schubert

Answer 4

Grandmother's right it's way older than 1970. Ave Maria (Salutatio Angelica), is a traditional Catholic and Orthodox church prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus and is rooted mainly in biblical texts.

Two Anglo-Saxon manuscripts at the British Museum, one of which may be as old as the year 1030, show that the words "Ave Maria" etc. and "benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui".

Although we cannot be sure that these clauses were at first joined together so as to make one prayer, there is conclusive evidence that this had come to pass only a very little later.

Your Grandmother will have sang The Ave Maria composed in about 1825 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) when he was twenty-eight years old and filled with devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was written for voice and piano and first Published in 1826.

Answer 5

According to the credits given on the sheet music for Ave Maria at the Classical Sheet Music site ( http://download-sheet-music-online.com/classical.html ), Ave Maria was composed by Franz Schubert .

Also, I beleive your grandmother was right, as I clearly remember Ave Maria was a common song heard in church when I was growing up in the '50s.

Answer 6

Johann Sebastian Bach
the famous composer

Answer 7

It was written by Schubert. It's my favorite version, too, and I know it goes back before 1970. Schubert was born in 1797 and died in 1828, so the music was composed WAY before 1970!

Answer 8

This shouldn't be too difficult.
Here is someone singing the original version of Schubert's Ave Maria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bosouX_d8Y

Here is Pavarotti singing a version which is orchestrated and translated into Italian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uYrmYXsujI

Answer 9

The Caccini version is NOT modern. Guilo Caccini (1551-1618) was born long before Schubert .

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote his version in 1825.

The Caccini version is the most beautiful ; pity it is not as well known.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZ8fBGtMaI

Answer 10

I like the second one, by Liam Lawton! It caught my ears a little more than the rest of them! (I agree with you on the Beyonce one) You're too Tarja obsessive :P She sounds good though!