Johann Sebastian Bach / Charles Gounod / Roger Nichols
"Gounod wrote the first version of this famous song in 1852 and it was published in Decemberof that year by Mayaud as ´Premier prélude de J.S. Bach´. The words were by Lamartine – ´Vers sur un album´ from his Recueillments poétiques of 1839. Exactly when these words were supplanted by those of the ´Ave Maria´ is not clear, but it seems to have happened within the first few years of the song´s life. After a century and a half the piece is still sung, played and loved the world over, and this is surely its own guarantee of musical value, as it is of its composer´s more general gift as a songwriter. In the view of Maurice Ravel, that sharp critic of everything shoddy or meretricious, ´the true founder of the mélodie in France was Charles Gounod.´ " (Roger Nichols)