Ave Maria From Three Melodies

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer working in the early Romantic era. His ever-popular Ave Maria was composed in 1825 as No.6 of his Op. 52, a setting of seven songs from Sir WalterScott’s epic poem The Lady Of The Lake. The text came from a part of the poem called Ellen’s Song.

The melody has been re-used many times, and is often set to the Catholic Prayer that starts with the samephrase (“Hail Mary” in English). Most memorably, it was adapted by Walt Disney for his 1940 film Fantasia. It has been transcribed here for Cello and Piano by the Italian cellist Alfredo Piatti as one of his ThreeMelodies.