The story behind “Ave Maria”

A still from the series, A misquote attributed to St Augustine.
Courtesy: TheCuriousSongwriter

An introduction

I first heard Ave Maria in the HBO series, The Newsroom, when Will has just been ordered by a court to surrender himself to the cops by the end of the day, yet decides to marry Mckenzie before he does that. Charlie, who is incharge of arranging a wedding band, stumbles upon this quote in a music school, which is often wrongly attributed to St. Augustine, however, the serenity of the scene makes us forgive that. There he witnesses, a young girl on a guitar, accompanied by violinists, playing the song Ave Maria. And through Charlie, we the viewers witnessed the melancholy behind the song, thanks to Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin eventually uses the same song in another of his series, “The west wing”, and associates the same song with loss and impermanence.

Will’s and Mckenzie’s wedding. A still from The Newsroom.
Courtesy: HBO Pictures

I was so taken aback by the melody of this song, and its beautiful melancholic cry, that I immediately wanted to know about who sang it. It turned out to be the same girl in the newsroom episode, it was Katie Boeck.

Katie Boeck’s version of Ave Maria.

I searched and searched, and somehow got through to Katie Boeck and I wrote it to her.

An email from Katie Boeck, the singer featured in The Newsroom.

I felt somewhat closer to the song, once I saw her response on it.

The meaning

The tune of the song always felt very melancholic as if it tries to depict sorrow. So I wanted to understand what the Latin words actually say.

Ave Maria (Latin)

Ave maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus
Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus Et benedictus
Et benedictus fructus ventris
Ventris tuae, Jesus.
Ave Maria
Ave Maria Mater Dei
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Ora pro nobis
Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Nunc et in hora mortis
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Ave Maria
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/ave-maria-schubert-lyrics/

Ave Maria (English)

Hail Mary, full of grace,
Mary, full of grace,
Mary, full of grace,
Hail, Hail, the Lord.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed,
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Thy womb, Jesus.
Hail Mary!
Hail Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Pray, pray for us;
Pray, pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death,
The hour of our death
The hour of our death,
The hour of our death
Hail Mary.
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/schubert/ave-maria-schubert-lyrics/

The words in Latin have a very parochial feeling, deeply rooted within the bible. Its words stayed in solidarity of the praise of the virgin mother and the holy child. I was amazed by this melancholy in the hymn.

The creators

Frank Schubert.
Photo courtesy: https://www.zbrushcentral.com/t/franz-schubert/373346

Sir Walter Scott.
Photo courtesy: https://www.britannica.com/story/what-did-sir-walter-scott-write

As I was re-watching the newsroom and the west wing, I got to those parts again, and I was transported back the first time I heard the song. I conjured the same feeling I got in 2018. Upon learning about who the original composer of the song was, I came across the name Frank Schubert. A famed but short-lived Austrian composer, who composed Ave Maria at the age of 31.He composed this song as a musical re-creation of German poet, Adam Stork’s poem Das Fraulein vom see. This poem was in fact a German translation of 6 part English poem, “The lady of the lake” by the early nineteenth century Scottish poet, Sir Walter Scott written in the year 1810.

The inspiration

The poem is set in a small island along a lake called Loch Katrine. It goes on to depict a clash of different clans, in a feudal world, where a lady named Ellen, is caught in the middle of a family feud. She is often treated as a prize of a conquest, with men fighting for her approval, without adhering to her thoughts. She and her family take refuge in a fortified island, which would later be called Ellen’s Isle, which still exists in Scotland.

The entire story is a fictional recreation using real life historical figures and places in Scotland during that time. William, who spent a holiday at Lake Katrine along with his family, looked upon the vast landscapes of Lake Katrine, and was so deeply lost within its landscapes that inspired within him a saga that would one day become part of religion.

Google map of Loch Katrine and Ellen’s Isle in Scotland.
Courtesy: Google

According to the 6th part of the poem, while Ellen and her family take refuge in the island, Ellen, looks up to the night sky and sings a prayer to the virgin Mary to look over her in these perturbed times. It goes on to describe how the vile men are trying to win her as a prize with great poignancy, and appeals to the maiden in the virgin mother, to look over her them as they sleep through the night.

This is possibly the feeling behind the composition of the tune of Ave maria. May be that’s why it has that unexplained melancholy. It feels like a setting which enhances song’s raison detre in this world. It elevates from a prayer to an ode to Mother Mary. And probably that’s the feeling Schubert related to while reading the German translation of the English poem, by Adam Stork. Schubert rendered the sixth song out of a collection of seven songs, using Stork’s German poem and calls it as Ellen’s song III. Yes, the original song of Ave maria is in German.

The original version

Ellens Gesang III

Adam Storck

Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,
Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen,
Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild
Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen.
Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,
Ob Menschen noch so grausam sind.
O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen,
O Mutter, hör ein bittend Kind!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! Unbefleckt!
Wenn wir auf diesen Fels hinsinken
Zum Schlaf, und uns dein Schutz bedeckt
Wird weich der harte Fels uns dünken.
Du lächelst, Rosendüfte wehen
In dieser dumpfen Felsenkluft,
O Mutter, höre Kindes Flehen,
O Jungfrau, eine Jungfrau ruft!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! Reine Magd!
Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen,
Von deines Auges Huld verjagt,
Sie können hier nicht bei uns wohnen.
Wir woll’n uns still dem Schicksal beugen,
Da uns dein heil’ger Trost anweht;
Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen,
Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht.
Ave Maria!
https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/3200

Ellen’s Song III

Sir Walter Scott

Ave Maria! Maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden’s entreaty
from this wild unyielding rock
my prayer shall be wafted to you.
We shall sleep safely until morning,
however cruel men may be.
O Maiden, behold a maiden’s cares,
O Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! Undefiled!
When we sink down upon this rock
to sleep, and your protection hovers over us,
the hard rock shall seem soft to us.
You smile, and the fragrance of roses
wafts through this musty cavern.
O Mother, hear a suppliant child,
O Maiden, a maiden cries to you!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! Purest Maiden!
Demons of the earth and air,
banished by the grace of your gaze,
cannot dwell with us here.
Let us silently bow to our fate,
since your holy comfort touches us;
incline in grace to a maiden,
to a child that prays for its father.
Ave Maria!
https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/3200

The reinterpretation

However, the melody of the song was cherished amidst the Roman catholic churches. They recreated a Latin version of the song was created specifically to serve as a prayer for the lord and the holy mother, retaining the words, Ave Maria. And that is the version which we all know and love so much.

Choirs singing Ave Maria.
Photo courtesy: https://justlovetosing.com/ave-maria-sheet-music/

The legacy

However, after knowing the story behind the song, whenever I listen to it and read the quite ode that Ellen sang to the holy mother in the darkness of the night, I often wander off to that image of Ellen’s Isle, and a young Walter Scott, who imagined an entire world that’s passed through lake Katarine just looking at a stoic piece of rock in the middle of a lake.

Ellen’s Isle.
Photo courtesy: https://www.thehazeltree.co.uk/2015/09/16/ellens-isle/

The amazing story of Ave Maria inspires me to believe that Art does travel through many people, changing mediums, through many centuries and many eras. It may continue to do so. We all are mere vessels who either recognize it or don’t.