Ave Maria for kids: Schubert's song and the Bach and Gounod one

Two famous pieces of classical music are called “Ave Maria.” Franz Schubert wrote one in 1825. Charles Gounod wrote the other in the 1850s, on top of a piano piece by Bach. People mix them up all the time. This page shows how to tell them apart.

Quick facts

	Schubert’s	The Bach and Gounod one
Written	1825	The tune in 1853, over a prelude from 1722
First made for	A singer and a piano	A violin or a cello, with a piano
Under the tune	Rippling groups of six notes	Bach’s Prelude in C major, in rising broken chords
The tune starts	With one long note that swells	With one long note, and then a slow climb
Length	About 6 minutes with all three verses	About 3 minutes

“Ave Maria” is Latin for “Hail, Mary.” They are the first words of a Christian prayer to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Schubert’s Ave Maria

Schubert did not set out to write church music. He was setting poems from a long story in verse by the Scottish writer Walter Scott, called The Lady of the Lake. In the story, a young woman named Ellen hides in a cave in the Scottish hills. She sings a prayer to Mary and asks for safety.

Schubert’s title for the song was “Ellen’s Third Song.” Ellen’s prayer begins with the words “Ave Maria,” and those two words became the name everyone used. Later, people fitted the words of the Latin prayer to his tune.

What to listen for. The piano ripples all the way through, in the style of a harp. The singer’s lines are long and slow, and each verse begins and ends with the words “Ave Maria.”

Read Schubert for kids.

The Bach and Gounod Ave Maria

Bach wrote his Prelude in C major in 1722. It has no tune. It is a chain of broken chords, one after another. Read Prelude in C major by Bach for kids.

More than 100 years later, the French composer Charles Gounod played the prelude and made up a slow tune to float above it. He wrote the tune down in 1853 as a piece for a solo instrument. A few years later, the Latin prayer was set to it.

So this piece has two composers who never met. Bach wrote the bottom, and Gounod wrote the top.

What to listen for. Under the tune, the piano climbs the same pattern of notes twice in every bar. That is Bach. The long, slow line on top is Gounod.

Read Gounod for kids.

How to tell them apart in ten seconds

Listen to what is under the tune.

• If the piano rolls in smooth waves, it is Schubert.
• If the piano climbs in broken chords, the same shape again and again, it is Bach and Gounod.

Where you may have heard them

Both are sung at weddings, at funerals, and at Christmas concerts. Violinists and cellists play them with no words. A famous cartoon film from 1940 ends with Schubert’s. Read the Fantasia music list.

Things to do together

Which one? Play the first ten seconds of each, in a mixed-up order. Your child names the composer.

Bottom and top. Play Bach’s prelude alone. Then play the Bach and Gounod piece, and hum the part Gounod added.

Long breath. Sing one long note for as long as the singer holds the first note. Singers train for years to do this.

Three ways. Find the same piece sung by a soprano, played on a cello, and sung by a choir. Pick a favorite.

Questions to ask

• What is the piano doing under the tune?
• Is the mood the same in both pieces?
• How can two composers share one piece?

Words to know

• Ave Maria: Latin for “Hail, Mary”
• Lied: a German song for one singer and a piano
• Broken chord: the notes of a chord played one at a time

Print and play

Print a listening journal page. For more church music, read Handel’s Messiah for kids. For calm music, read calm classical music for kids at bedtime.