Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in ...(+)
Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, a String Quintet,
the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabras, the
incidental music to the play Rosamunde, and the song
cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. He was
remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his
short career. His compositional style progressed
rapidly throughout his short life. The largest number
of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano
(roughly 630). Schubert also composed a considerable
number of secular works for two or more voices, namely
part songs, choruses and cantatas. He completed eight
orchestral overtures and seven complete symphonies, in
addition to fragments of six others. While he composed
no concertos, he did write three concertante works for
violin and orchestra. Schubert wrote a large body of
music for solo piano, including eleven incontrovertibly
completed sonatas and at least eleven more in varying
states of completion, numerous miscellaneous works and
many short dances, in addition to producing a large set
of works for piano four hands. He also wrote over fifty
chamber works, including some fragmentary works.
Schubert's sacred output includes seven masses, one
oratorio and one requiem, among other mass movements
and numerous smaller compositions. He completed only
eleven of his twenty stage works.
"Ellens dritter Gesang" ("Ellens Gesang III", D. 839,
Op. 52, No. 6, 1825), in English: "Ellen's Third Song",
was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his
Op. 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's
1810 popular narrative poem The Lady of the Lake,
loosely translated into German. It is one of Schubert's
most popular works. Beyond the song as originally
composed by Schubert, it is often performed and
recorded by many singers under the title "Ave Maria"
(the Latin name of the prayer Hail Mary, and also the
opening words and refrain of Ellen's song, a song which
is itself a prayer to the Virgin Mary), in musically
simplified arrangements and with various lyrics that
commonly differ from the original context of the poem.
It was arranged in three versions for piano by Franz
Liszt.
The piece was composed as a setting of a song (verse
XXIX from Canto Three) from Walter Scott's popular
narrative poem The Lady of the Lake, in a German
translation by Adam Storck (1780–1822), and thus
forms part of Schubert's Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom
See. In Scott's poem, the character Ellen Douglas, the
Lady of the Lake (Loch Katrine in the Scottish
Highlands), has gone with her exiled father to stay in
the Goblin's cave as he has declined to join their
previous host, Roderick Dhu, in rebellion against King
James. Roderick Dhu, the chieftain of Clan Alpine, sets
off up the mountain with his warriors, but lingers and
hears the distant sound of the harpist Allan-bane,
accompanying Ellen who sings a prayer addressed to the
Virgin Mary, calling upon her for help. Roderick Dhu
pauses, then goes on to battle. Schubert's setting is
said to have first been performed at the castle of
Countess Sophie Weissenwolff in the little Austrian
town of Steyregg and dedicated to her, which led to her
becoming known as "the lady of the lake" herself.
The opening words and refrain of Ellen's song, namely
"Ave Maria" (Latin for "Hail Mary"), may have led to
the idea of adapting Schubert's melody as a setting for
the full text of the traditional Roman Catholic prayer,
"Ave Maria". The Latin version of the "Ave Maria" is
now so frequently used with Schubert's melody that it
has led to the misconception that he originally wrote
the melody as a setting for the "Ave Maria" prayer.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert))
Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the "Ave Maria" (Hail
Mary D.839 Op. 52 No. 6) for Flute & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC