Ave Maria

views updated May 14 2018

Ave Maria (Hail Mary). Prayer consisting partly of the biblical salutations of the Archangel Gabriel and Elizabeth to the Virgin Mary, and partly of matter added in the 15th cent. Many settings, that by Schubert being to a Ger. trans. of Walter Scott's poem from ‘The Lady of the Lake’ (1810). That known as by ‘Bach–Gounod’ is the first prelude from Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier with Gounod's Méditation as counterpoint, the words having been added by someone else.

Ave Maria

views updated May 11 2018

Ave Maria. Christian, mainly Catholic, salutation and invocation addressed to Mary.