Ave Maria sheet music of Schubert and Gounod-Bach

This is very famous and popular theme. There are many version of it. Shubert, Gounod, Piazzolla, Caccini, Verdi - these are just a few composers who wrote music to this prayer. Every of this pieces is very beautiful and real masterpiece. But the most famous in my opinion is Ave Maria of Franz Schubert. I was surprised when I knew that originally Schubert didn’t write this composition on habitual for us words of Catholic prayer Ave Maria. The origin text of this composition is German translation of Walter Scott's epic poem “The Lady of the Lake”. This is why this piece is a part of Schubert’s song cycle "Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See". There were words Ave Maria in the text of this song, and with the time the full text of Catholic prayer Ave Maria began to be used together with the composition of Schubert. And now it is common to hear this composition with traditional text of Catholic Prayer.
Sheet music of Schubert’s Ave Maria with words from Walter Scott’s Poem for voice and piano you can download for free.
Other very famous version of Ave Maria was written by Charles Gounod in 1859. The melody is based on the harmony of Bach’s Prelude Nr.1 from Well-Tempered Clavier. Originally this Prelude was written in C major. Gounod‘s transcription is in F major. The character of melody is very relaxing, calm and tranquil. There is no doubt that this is very successful example of co-authorship when a work has found a new life.
Free sheet music of Gounod-Bach Ave Maria for voice and piano can be downloaded here.