The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and
much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria.
Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in
1859, his Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed
over the Prelude No. 1 in C major from Book I of the
Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846), composed by J. S. Bach
some 137 years earlier. (Gounod adds one bar so as to
smooth out a rough change in harmony in the
prelude.)
SHEET MUSIC