“And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her
womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said,
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded
in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be
a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said,
My soul doth magnify the Lord,”

- Luke 1: 41-46 (KJV)

The piece consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod especially designed to be superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, written some 137 years earlier. Although published in instrumental versions and fitted to various texts during Gounod's lifetime, the claim that he never 'wrote' it appears to be literally true...^[1]

Gounod's father-in-law Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann transcribed the improvisation and in 1853 made an arrangement for violin (or cello) with piano and harmonium. The same year it appeared with the words of Alphonse de Lamartine's poem Le livre de la vie ("The Book of Life").^[2] In 1859 Jacques Léopold Heugel published a version with the familiar Latin text. The version of Bach's prelude used by Gounod includes the "Schwencke measure" (m.23), a measure apparently added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in an attempt to correct what he allegedly deemed a "faulty" progression, even though this sort of progression was standard in Bach's music.^[3]

Alongside Schubert's Ave Maria (another contrafactum), the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria has become a fixture at wedding masses, funerals and quinceañeras. There are many different instrumental arrangements including for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. Opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs have recorded it hundreds of times during the twentieth century.

Later in his career, Gounod composed an unrelated setting of Ave Maria for a four-part SATB choir.

   NO WAY!  I neglected to ask you for your birthday, and whether you'd like me to post your email addy; meanwhile, I've added you to the Alumni and Contact Pages with your classmates.

   We look forward to your sharing your memories with us! Welcome aboard, Sharon!

The millionaire grabbed the microphone and said, "I am a man of my word. Anything of mine I will give: my Ferraris, my house, absolutely anything, for you are the bravest man I have ever seen. So sir what will it be?"

The guy grabbed the microphone and said, "Why don't we start with the name of the jerk who pushed me in?!?"