Franz Schubert: Ellen’s third song/Ave Maria

FRANZ SCHUBERT:  ‘ELLENS DRITTER GESANG’

op. 52 No. 6, D. 839

(other titles: ‘Ellens Gesang III’, ‘Ellen’s third song’, ‘Ave Maria’)

This song is often referred to as ‘Schubert’s Ave Maria’. It needs to be noted, though, that Franz Schubert had composed it as a setting not of the traditional Christian ‘Ave Maria’ prayer (in its English rendering known as ‘The Hail Mary’) but of Ellen’s ‘Hymn to the Virgin’ from the ‘Canto Third’ (XXIX) of Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’, that had been translated into German by Dr Adam Storck (‘Hymne an die Jungfrau’), and the opening words and refrain of which happen to be the greeting ‘Ave Maria’, i.e. ‘Hail Mary’. Schubert’s song, written for soprano and piano, forms part of his ‘Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See’; and this short greeting is the full extent of its verbal similarity with the Christian ‘Ave Maria’ prayer.

   Theologically Ellen’s ‘Hymn to the Virgin’ is quite interesting. Whilst most of its words are given over to the praise of the Virgin Mary and trust in her help in time of need – an adaptation of the Scriptural prayer tradition to a prayer to the Mother of God –, its purpose is to invoke her help on behalf of the supplicant, the subject of whose care is mentioned only once, and this at the very end, the climax of the hymn: ‘for a father hear a child!’. The audience knows, of course, from Scott’s original context that what the father needs is the pardon of the king who has banished him and his family from his realm. Yet in the hymn the kind of help desired is not expressed – again in adaptation of the Christian tradition that believes that God our Father knows what His children need, so that all that is required of us is to ask Him to give us what we need (i.e. rather than to ask for anything in particular), certain in the knowledge that He will not give us a stone for a loaf! This makes it a fitting prayer for the Virgin Mary’s intercession for a father’s needs on the lips of any loving daughter.

   Reputedly a letter by Franz Schubert to his parents records that this song of his had been well received by its first audience owing to its composer’s evident great piety that succeeded in stirring up devotion in his listeners.

   At some later date an alternative version of Schubert’s song was created wherein the entire Scott/Storck text used by Schubert himself was substituted with the traditional Christian ‘Ave Maria’ prayer in the Latin language (arranged to match the music); and today Schubert’s song is most frequently performed in this adaptation, i.e. with the text of what is essentially the ‘Ave Maria’ prayer. The adaptation has entered also the repertoires of choirs and male artists, since – contrary to ‘Ellens dritter Gesang’ by Scott/Storck – the Christian ‘Ave Maria’ prayer is in the plural and not gender-specific, moreover, does not depend on a youthful voice for credibility.


Ellen’s ‘Hymn to the Virgin’	‘Ellens Gesang III’
from the ‘Canto Third’ (XXIX) of	from
Sir Walter Scott’s	Franz Peter Schubert’s
‘The Lady of the Lake’	‘Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See’
(cf. page 58 in the edition by	(in the German translation by Adam Storck)
William J. Rolfe, Boston 1883):

Ave Maria! maiden mild!	Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,
Listen to a maiden’s prayer!	Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,	Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild
Thou canst save amid despair.	Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,	Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,
Though banish’d, outcast and reviled –	Ob Menschen noch so grausam sind.
Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer;	O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!	O Mutter, hör’ ein bittend Kind!
Ave Maria!	Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! undefiled!	Ave Maria! Unbefleckt!
The flinty couch we now must share	Wenn wir auf diesen Fels hinsinken
Shall seem this down of eider piled,	Zum Schlaf, und uns dein Schutz bedeckt,
If thy protection hover there.	Wird weich der harte Fels uns dünken.
The murky cavern’s heavy air	Du lächelst, Rosendüfte wehen
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;	In dieser dumpfen Felsenkluft;
Then, Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer;	O Mutter, höre Kindes Flehen;
Mother, list a suppliant child!	O Jungfrau, eine Jungfrau ruft!
Ave Maria!	Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! stainless styled!	Ave Maria! Reine Magd!
Foul demons of the earth and air,	Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen,
From this their wonted haunt exiled,	Von deines Auges Huld verjagt,
Shall flee before thy presence fair.	Sie können hier nicht bei uns wohnen.
We bow us to our lot of care,	Wir woll’n uns still dem Schicksal beugen,
Beneath thy guidance reconciled;	Da uns dein heil’ger Trost anweht;
Hear for a maid a maiden’s prayer,	Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen,
And for a father hear a child!	Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht!
Ave Maria!	Ave Maria!

Return