Avi

media type="youtube" key="VNNbtR5R68U" height="261" width="506" align="center"
 * **Title of Piece**: Ave Maria
 * **Composer:** Charles Gounod & J.S. Bach
 * **Performers/group name:** Anne Akiko Meyers on violin & Reiko Uchida on piano.
 * **Musical Time Period:** Romantic

=Information on the piece= Gounod's //**Ave Maria**// is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text //Ave Maria//. Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in 1859, his //Ave Maria// consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846. (The version used by Gounod has the addition of one measure (m.23). There are many different instrumental arrangements of the Gounod //Ave Maria//, including for violin, guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. It is often performed in Christian wedding ceremonies. Pop/Rock singers such as Chris Cornell, and opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs have recorded it hundreds of times during the twentieth century. Sergio Franchi recorded it on his 1965 RCA Victor Billboard Top 40 Album, //The Heart of Christmas (Cuor' Di Natale).//

= Biography on the Composer = Charles-François Gounod was born on June 17 1818 and died on October 1893. Charles Gounod was a French composer, known for his //Ave Maria// as well as his operas //Faust// and //Roméo et Juliette//.

Gounod was born in Paris, France the son of a talented pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher. He entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Pierre Zimmermann (he later married Zimmermann's daughter). In 1839, he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. He was following his father; François-Louis Gounod (d. 1823) had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783 .While in Italy, Gounod studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century; these he never ceased to cherish. Around 1846-47 he gave serious consideration to joining the priesthood, but he changed his mind before actually taking holy orders, and went back to composition.In 1854, Gounod completed a Messe Solennelle, also known as the Saint Cecilia Mass. This work was first performed, in its entirety, for the church of Saint Eustache in Paris on Saint Cecilia's Day, November 22, 1855; from this rendition dates Gounod's fame as a noteworthy composer. During 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No. 1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C, composed later that year by Georges Bizet, who was then Gounod's 17-year-old student. In the CD era a few recordings of these pieces have emerged: by Michel Plasson conducting the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, and by Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, introduced the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach to Gounod, who came to revere Bach. For him, The Well-Tempered Clavier was "the law to pianoforte study...the unquestioned textbook of musical composition". It inspired Gounod to devise an improvisation of a melody over the C major Prelude (BWV 846) from the collection's first book. To this melody, in 1859 (after the deaths of both Mendelssohn siblings), Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria, resulting in a setting that became world-famous.

Gounod wrote his first opera, //Sapho//, in 1851, at the urging of a friend of his, the singer Pauline Viardot; it was a commercial failure. He had no great theatrical success until //Faust// (1859), derived from Goethe. This remains the composition for which he is best known; and although it took a while to achieve popularity, it became one of the most frequently staged operas of all time, with no fewer than 2,000 performances of the work having taken place by 1975 at the Paris Opéra alone, not counting other theatres. The romantic and melodious //Roméo et Juliette// (based on the Shakespeare play //Romeo and Juliet//), premiered in 1867, is revived now and then but has never come close to matching //Faust//'s popular following. //Mireille//, first performed in 1864, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public.

From 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England. In 17 Morden Road, Blackheath. A blue plaque has been put up on the house to show where he lived. He became the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. Much of his music from this time is vocal. He became entangled with the amateur English singer Georgina Weldon, a relationship which ended in great acrimony and embittered litigation. Gounod had lodged with Weldon and her husband in London's Tavistock House. Later in his life, Gounod returned to his early religious impulses, writing much sacred music. His //Pontifical Anthem// (//Marche Pontificale//, 1869) eventually (1949) became the official national anthem of Vatican City. He expressed a desire to compose his //Messe à la mémoire de Jeanne d'Arc// (1887) while kneeling on the stone on which Joan of Arc knelt at the coronation of Charles VII of France. A devout Catholic, he had on his piano a music-rack in which was carved an image of the face of Jesus. He was made a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur in July 1888.

In 1893, shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, Charles Gounod died of a stroke in Saint-Cloud, France.One of Gounod's short pieces for piano, "Funeral March of a Marionette", received a new and unexpected lease of life from 1955 when it was first used as the theme for the television series //Alfred Hitchcock Presents//.

=**Analysis of the Piece**= This piece of music is loved and is well known around the universe for its simplicity and ability to move practically anyone who hears it. Even when performed only as an instrumental, the song still has a tremendous emotional pull. Ave Maria is still one of the most popular songs in all of the world, especially among hymns. The opening words of the song as well as the refrain are believed to have inspired the adaptation of the melody as the setting for the complete body of the traditional Catholic prayer Ave Maria. As a result, the Latin version of the song is used on such a frequent basis today. The reason why I chose this piece is because it's such a wonderful soothing piece played by an extremely talented violinist. Listening to this song in particular truly makes me have goose bumps of Anne Akiko Meyers' rendition of Ave Maria. The way shes playing the violin and the amount of sound she's getting out of the violin is absolutely outstanding, you can distinctively here the dynamics which is really important for such a piece. The harmony is calm and steady and as for the melody Anne Akiko Meyers' plays it with a great amount of character. = = =** Other Works by Anne **** Akiko Meyers **= Meyers has been a regular guest at the world's most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Suntory Hall and the Sydney Opera House. She has been the featured soloist with the Boston Symphony, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo's NHK Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vienna Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

eOne Records Anne Akiko Meyers, violin Emmanuel Ceysson, harp Reiko Uchida, piano Release Date: 2010 and much much more! media type="youtube" key="Avy5fUeFGog" height="315" width="560" align="center"
 * 'Seasons...dreams...**’
 * 1) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Clair de Lune
 * 2) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Träume (//Dreams//)
 * 3) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Sonata No. 5 for Violin and Piano, Op. 24 (//Spring//)
 * 4) Gene Pritsker (b. 1972) Variations on Sakura Sakura
 * 5) George Gershwin (1898-1937) Summertime
 * 6) Vernon Duke (1903-1969) Autumn in New York (arr. Jeff Tyzik)
 * 7) Joseph Kosma (1905-1969) Tenderly/Autumn Leaves (arr. Rich DeRosa)

media type="youtube" key="8Mh5MlTvmKk" height="315" width="420" align="left" media type="youtube" key="GAalse_d-H8" height="315" width="420" align="right"