"Ave Maria"

Frank Sinatra Singing
"Ave Maria"
in Radio Broadcast (1944)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Austria B53
Franz Schubert
(issued 4-24-1922)

Frank Sinatra sings
"Ave Maria"
(4-5-1944)

France B174
Charles Gounod
(issued 3-27-1944)

Preface: For Song #18, I've selected "Ave Maria" sang by Frank Sinatra. In this live radio performance likely not heard since it was first broadcast on April 5, 1944, Frank Sinatra, a lifelong Catholic Christian, sings Franz Schubert's AVE MARIA / HAIL MARY in anticipation of Easter Sunday on April 9, 1944. Sinatra, accompanied by a vocal chorus, sings the song in Latin. Recorded from the original transcription. In 1825, Schubert actually had another poem in mind when he wrote the music to what we now know as Ave Maria. Walter Scott's "The Lady of the Lake" was the intended text, and while it does open with the words Ave Maria! maiden mild, it is no longer the text we think of when we hear the song. Perhaps this shared opening was what prompted singers and arrangers in the years after Schubert's death to consider setting the ancient Catholic prayer to Schubert's music instead, creating the version we've come to recognise. Gounod's "Ave Maria" (1885) gained considerable popularity. It consists of a descant superimposed over a version of the first prelude of Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier". In its original form it is for violin with piano; the words of the "Hail Mary" were added to the melody later. (Lyrics in Latin & English). YouTube: Marian Anderson sings Schubert's "Ave Maria"; Luciano Pavarotti sings Schubert's "Ave Maria" (1994); Deanna Durbin sings Gounod's "Ave Maria" (1940); Barbara Streisand sings Gounod's "Ave Maria".

Latin

Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Maria, gratia plena,
Maria, gratia plena,
Ave, Ave, Dominus,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus,
Et benedictus fructus ventris (tui),
Ventris tui, Jesus.
Ave Maria!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Ora, ora pro nobis;
Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
Nunc et in hora mortis,
In hora mortis nostrae.
In hora, hora mortis nostrae,
In hora mortis nostrae.
Ave Maria!

English

Hail Mary, full of grace,
Mary, full of grace,
Mary, full of grace,
Hail, Hail, the Lord
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed,
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Thy womb, Jesus.
Hail Mary!

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Pray, pray for us;
Pray for us sinners,
Now, and at the hour of our death,
The hour of our death.
The hour, the hour of our death,
The hour of our death.
Hail Mary!