Gounod/Bach Ave Maria

The Gounod/Bach Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria. Written by Charles Gounod (and published in 1853), his Ave Maria (also called Meditation on the First Prelude of Bach) consists of melody and lyrics superimposed over the Prelude Number 1 in C Major from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846), composed by Johann Sebastian Bach 137 years earlier.

Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893) was a French Romantic composer, well-known for his Ave Maria, and for his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette. He wrote other operas, as well as songs, theater music, religious music, and ballets. One of Gounod's short pieces for piano, Funeral March of a Marionette was used in the 1950s as the theme for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) is one of humanity's greatest treasures. It is unsurpassed in its expression of profound reverence for life, and in its depth and diversity of ideas and feelings. It provides boundless joy to listeners and performers.

Tutorials

• At Tempo

• At Tempo (with score)

• Slow

• Slow (with score)

Sheetmusic

• Book: Master Pieces of Piano Music

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Piece starts on page 454.