AVE MARIA

Everyone’s heard it, but not everyone knows it’s by Franz Schubert. And here’s the real surprise: Though we normally hear it in Latin, it wasn’t originally written as church music. Ave Maria was one of the 600 lieder – popular songs using the words of famous poetry – that Schubert wrote. It was based on the poem, "Lady of the Lake" by Walter Scott.

Schubert was considered the master of this musical form, and was a seemingly bottomless source of beautiful melody. Antonio Salieri, the dangerously jealous composer depicted in the movie Amadeus, said that Schubert "must be taught by God himself." The Catholic church obviously agreed, adapting Ave Maria with Latin lyrics. The music is heavenly either way.