Ave Maria sheet music

Schubert never set the Ave Maria prayer. He wrote 'Ellens dritter Gesang' to a German translation of a passage from Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake, and the piece only became a Marian hymn later, when someone fitted the Latin text to his melody. The original opens on the words 'Ave Maria' by coincidence of translation. What survives every arrangement is the rocking accompaniment and that unhurried, almost conversational vocal line.