Ave Maria

EDITOR'S NOTE

Carl Czerny ( 1791-1857) was born in Vienna to a musical family, his grandfather a violinist and father a piano teacher. After piano lessons with his father at an early age, Czerny became a student of Beethoven. Although he began a career as a concert pianist, he abandoned his public performances to become a piano teacher, counting among his students Franz Liszt. As a teacher, Czerny wrote volumes of piano exercises and studies for his students, repertoire for which he is most known today. As a composer of choral music, Czerny produced two volumes of offertories and graduals, as well as extended works for chorus and orchestra including settings of the Te Deum.

Carl Czerny's Ave Maria, for SATB chorus with keyboard accompaniment, was written in 1839. The text is an antiphon and is translated as follows: Hail Mary,full of grace, the Lord is with you. You are blessed among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.