Ave Maria

It was an extraordinary idea on Gounod’s part to take Bach’s Prelude in C major (the first item in Book I of the Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues) and use it as the accompaniment to a song. One outraged critic declared that it was like carving his name on an ancient monument. But it took more than an ordinary imagination to think of it and more than an ordinary melodic gift to invent the tune that goes so well with the Bach Prelude. The combination proved to be highly effective first of all as a setting of a poem by Lamartine and more effective still when, in 1859, Gounod realised that the words of the Ave Maria would make a perfect fit. Since then it has become Gounod’s best-known piece and has been published in an enormous variety of arrangements - including tonight’s for two-part choir.