Recently my only flute student here in Honduras was forbidden from performing Schubert ‘s “Ave Maria” at a church Christmas presentation on the grounds that it is “Catholic” and therfore not allowed in that Evangelical hall. This is reminiscent of an experience of mine a couple of dcecades back. I was playing the flute at a wedding in Mississauga, Ontario with a harpist, and because of unclear directions, we uncharacteristically arrived only minutes before the ceremony was about to begin. As we were hurriedly setting up, the minister came over and enquired about the music we were planning to play, and I gave him a quick run-down. When I mentioned the Schubert “Ave Maria,” he stated flatly that I couldn’t play that.
“Why not?”
“It’s Catholic.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Well, you can’t play it.”
“The bride and groom have requested it.”
“I don’t care. You’re not going to play that in my church.”
“I believe this is the Lord’s church.”
He went off in a huff; I wasn’t trying to be insolent, it was that everybody was ready and waiting for the wedding march to begin and I it wasn’t the time or place to get into an argument.
A few readers may know what he was talking about, but most, I venture, are baffled or see this as a silly sectarian view, akin to the Communist Chinese government banning the music of Beethoven because he was “bourgeois.” The crux of the matter is that in churches, the Latin words that are usually sung are the prayer, “Hail Mary, full of grace . . .” The Catholics have a cult of the worship of the Virgin Mary not shared by most Protestant sects. To inflict this doctrinal squabble on a defenseless little musical masterpiece, even when it is played instrumentally, without the words, is a tiny example of the myriad walls religion has erected in the seamless Faith of God, the removal of which is the avowed thousand-year mission of the Bahá’ís.
The original lyric that Franz Schubert (pictured above) selected for his song was a German translation (made by one Adam Storck) of an excerpt from Canto XXIX of Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem Lady of the Lake. The heroine, Ellen Douglas, is on the run, and prays to the Virgin Mary. It begins thus:
Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden's prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,
Thou canst save amid despair.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banished, outcast, and reviled--
Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!
Schubert set this to music around 1825, at age 28. He wrote over 600 songs, and introduced them to his circle at musical parties which came to be known as Schubertiads. He wrote to his parents about this song, mentioning that the listeners were surprised at the piety in the song, which was not something he was known for. His own title for this song was “Ellen’s Third Song.” It occurred to an unknown person at a later date that the Latin prayer to Mary could be moulded to Schubert’s sublime melody, and I wonder whether the soul of that meddler in is a place arrived at via a road paved with good intentions.
Schubert set this to music around 1825, at age 28. He wrote over 600 songs, and introduced them to his circle at musical parties which came to be known as Schubertiads. He wrote to his parents about this song, mentioning that the listeners were surprised at the piety in the song, which was not something he was known for. His own title for this song was “Ellen’s Third Song.” It occurred to an unknown person at a later date that the Latin prayer to Mary could be moulded to Schubert’s sublime melody, and I wonder whether the soul of that meddler in is a place arrived at via a road paved with good intentions.
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