A favourite at weddings and funerals as well as in the concert hall, Ave Maria demands breath control of the singer and good Piano skills. This version was adapted for two Voices especially for performance by school, festival and amateur Choruses. When Bach wrote his Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722 for educational purposes he could never have imagined that his Prelude No. 1 in C was to be given a new life as the ground for Gounod’s Ave Maria nearly 140 years later. Charles Gounod created the work as an improvisation, transcribed by his father for Violin with Piano and harmonium. It wasn’t until 1859 that the Latin text was published with the work.