Ave Maria

“There are very few female choirs good enough to divide into eight parts without coming to grief,” the eminent Victorian theorist Ebenezer Prout declared. But he need not have worried for the success of the young Gustav Holst’s Ave Maria. Despite its rich scoring for two unaccompanied upper-voice choirs, this ravishing anthem—composed in 1900, just two years after Holst left the Royal College of Music—has found a secure place in the repertoire. With its translucent texture, fluid part-writing (with more than a nod to Renaissance polyphony) and lightness of harmonic touch, Holst’s Ave Maria is an early glimpse into the mature musician. Two equal choirs pass graceful phrases to and fro, the absence of tenors and basses creating an exhilarating sense of freedom and movement. As voice is layered upon voice, sopranos reaching ever higher, the musical radiance intensifies: a glowing hymn to the Virgin Mary.