Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (1813 – 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.

In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).

His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata. The bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances.

After Verdi finished his opera Aida and in 1874 the Messa da Requiem, he retired from composing for years, writing only minor sacred compositions such as a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria in 1880. The earliest of the Quattro pezzi sacri in terms of its composition date is what came to be known as Laudi alla Vergine Maria (although Verdi himself did not give it that title). It was composed between 1886 and 1888, during which time he was also working on his penultimate opera, Otello, which premiered in 1887. The second of the Pezzi to be composed was the Ave Maria, whose setting is built on an enigmatic scale. He originally composed it in 1889 and revised it for publication in 1897. The Te Deum was begun in 1895 two years after the premiere of his last opera, Falstaff. It was finished in the summer of 1896. The Stabat Mater followed, and all four pieces were sent to Verdi's publisher, Casa Ricordi, in June 1897.

Verdi was inspired in 1889 to compose Ave Maria by the enigmatic scale C – D-flat – E – F-sharp – G-sharp – A-sharp – B – C which Adolfo Crescentini (1854–1921) had published in Ricordi's magazine Gazetta musicale di Milano, inviting composers to harmonise it. Verdi composed a setting for four unaccompanied voices, with the bass singing the scale first, followed by alto, tenor and soprano, whereas the three remaining voices supply harmonic texture. He commented: "An Ave Maria. It will be my fourth! Perhaps I shall be beatified by the Holy Father." Verdi revised the work in June 1897 for the publication. The music publisher Schott renders the subtitle as "Scala enigmatica armonizzata a 4 voci miste" (Enigmatic scale harmonised for four mixed voices).

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Verdi).

Although originally written for Chorus (SATB), I created this Interpretation of "Ave Maria" from "Quattro pezzi sacri" (No. 1) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).