| "Ave Maria" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Beyoncé from the album I Am... Sasha Fierce | ||||
| Recorded | 2008; Bangladesh, Patchwerk and Silent Sound studios (Atlanta, Georgia) | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Length | 3:42 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Writer | Beyoncé Knowles, Amanda Ghost, Ian Dench, Makeba Riddick, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen | |||
| Producer | Beyoncé Knowles, Stargate | |||
| I Am... Sasha Fierce track listing | ||||
|
||||
"Ave Maria" is a song by American R&B recording artist Beyoncé Knowles from her third studio album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008). Amanda Ghost, Ian Dench and Makeba Riddick wrote the song in collaboration with its producers Knowles and production duo Stargate. As stated by Ghost, "Ave Maria" was inspired by Knowles' and her own respective marriages. The song is a re-write of Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria". It is instrumentally complete with a piano and strings. Throughout the ballad, Knowles sings in a lower register. Lyrically, it speaks about being surrounded by friends but still feeling alone.
Critical reception towards the song was mixed. Many contemporary critics praised its balladry and Knowles' vocals while others dubbed it as merely a normal take on the original. Following the release of I Am... Sasha Fierce, "Ave Maria" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 150 on November 29, 2008, based on downloads alone. The song was a part Knowles' set list during her I Am... Tour (2009-10) where she sang it dressed in a wedding dress and veil. "Ave Maria" was subsequently included on her live album, I Am... World Tour (2010). She performed the song during the 2009 BET Awards.
Contents |
Mikkel Storleer Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen, together under the stage name Stargate, wrote and produced the song with additional writing by Amanda Ghost, Ian Dench and Makeba Riddick.[1] The song was written in Bangladesh, Patchwerk and Silent Sound Studios in Atlanta, Georgia in 2008.[1] Knowles worked with Amanda Ghost to re-write the Franz Schubert "Ave Maria" after having co-written "Disappear" in London.[2] She stated that the song was one of the most personal on the album.[3] Ghost told The Daily Telegraph that Knowles' references to rapper Jay-Z are usually unclear and open to interpretation, yet her music, including "Ave Maria", "is the one place she can be incredibly expressive".[2] Knowles and Ghost both liked Schubert's song and walked down the aisle to the song during their respective weddings. The marriages of the artists inspired them to write their own version of the recording.[2] She further discussed the lyrics and inspiration:
[T]he lyric is very much about her. She talks about being surrounded by friends but she's alone: 'How can the silence seem so loud?' and then 'There's only us when the lights go down'. I think that's probably the most personal line on the whole album about her and Jay, because they are very real, and they're very much in love, and it must be pretty tough to have that love when you're incredibly famous.[2]
"Ave Maria" is a ballad that runs for 3 minutes and 42 seconds.[4][5] According to the sheet music published on Musicnotes.com by EMI Music Publishing, it is written in the key of C Major with a slow tempo of 75 beats per minute and it is set in common time.[6] The song samples the Franz Schubert "Ave Maria",[7] however as noted by Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly, even though it "does riff on the classic aria, it's not an actual cover".[5] The main instruments in "Ave Maria" include a piano and strings.[8] Throughout the song, Knowles' "voice shows restraint", and she sings in a lower register with an operatic soprano,[9] which gives her more vocal power, as commented by Jennifer Vineyard of MTV News.[8] Her vocal range spans from the music note of B3 to E5.[6] Lyrically, "Ave Maria" is about being surrounded by friends but still feeling alone, as conveyed by the lines, "How can the silence seem so loud?" and "There's only us when the lights go down".[2] This view was echoed by Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle, who wrote that the song weaves "a vivid tale of a desperate woman".[10]
Contemporary music critics received the "Ave Maria" with mixed reception. While some praised Knowles' emotion-filled vocals, others stated that her version as merely a normal take on the original. Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle commended the open-hearted emotion and the soft vocals that Knowles adopts on "Ave Maria", before adding that it is "a clever riff on the classic aria" and "a unique risk that pays off".[10] The Village Voice's Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond described the song as being "opera-tinted".[11] Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly wrote that on the I Am disc there were some "lovely ballads" including "Disappear" and the "soaring 'Halo' and 'Ave Maria'."[5] Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal concluded that Knowles' twist on the song is "vocally impeccable, but it reads more like recital fodder rather than a true confessional."[12] Matos Michaelangelo of The A.V. Club wrote that "Beyoncé has a real flair for grandeur" and the "big, wide melodies of 'Halo' and 'Ave Maria' give her enough to work with that."[13] Greg Kot of Chicago Tribune commented that "Ave Maria" offers a "rare moment of comfort" and added that it "come[s] off as delicate as [Knowles'] emotions."[14]
Spence D. of IGN Music praised "Ave Maria", writing that it shows Knowles in "crystal clear form" due to the mellow accompaniment that highlighted her "often captivating" voice.[15] Darryl Sterdan, writing for the Canadian website Jam!, noted that Knowles "draws on the classic composition for this sweeping number" and echoes a similar line to John Lennon's quote: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."[4] Talia Kraines of BBC Online called the song "very strange, but wonderful".[16] In his consumer guide, Robert Christgau wrote, "But me, I'm a hater, and thus I'm something like outraged, by not just those two pimp-outs but an 'Ave Maria' lacking even the dumbstruck literalism of Pink's rendition or the grotesque conversion of 'Umbrella' into 'Halo.'"[17] Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the song was "pompous and frankly embarrassing".[18] Colin McGuire of PopMatters commented that "Ave Maria" is a "pretty normal take, a piece that has simply been done too many times before to think [Knowles] would even have a shot at putting her stamp on it."[19] According to James Reed of the The Boston Globe, the song "is an intriguing proposition torpedoed by a soggy arrangement".[20]
"Ave Maria" was a part of the set list during Knowles' I Am... Tour (2009-2010), where she performed the song dressed in a wedding dress and blended it into Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" (1998).[22] She performed the song in Sunrise, Florida on June 29, 2009. As she sung, animated graphics of turntables, faders, and other club gear throbbed behind her and her musicians.[23] Knowles was accompanied by her two drummers, two keyboardists, a percussionist, a horn section, three backup vocalists called the Mamas and a lead guitarist, Bibi McGill.[24] According to Parke Puterbaugh from News & Record, the strangest moment of the concert was Knowles' "unironic delivery" of "Ave Maria", for which she was attired in a wedding dress and veil.[23] A writer for the newspaper Irish Independent commented that "an Irish audience surely cannot sit through the old convent staple 'Ave Maria' ... without feeling something cold squeeze the heart."[25] Alice Jones of The Independent felt that the performance was an "exceedingly odd segment" during the tour.[9]
Knowles performed the song during the 2009 BET Awards.[26][27] During the same event, she blended the song with Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" in honor to Michael Jackson.[28] Knowles appeared in an angelic Balmain mini white dress,[28][29] and according to a writer from The Daily Telegraph, performed a "moving version" of "Ave Maria".[30] A writer for the newspaper The Hindu commented that the performance of the song was "simultaneously sexy and angelic".[31] Knowles performed "Ave Maria" in Burswood Entertainment Complex, Perth, Western Australia.[32][33] Jay Hanna writing for The Sunday Times described the performance as stunning.[32] A live performance of the song is featured on Knowles' 2010 live album, I Am... World Tour.[34]
Credits are taken from I Am... Sasha Fierce liner notes.[1]
Following the album's digital release, "Ave Maria" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 150 on November 29, 2008.[35]
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Portuguese Ringtone Chart[36] | 16 |
| UK Singles Chart[35] | 150 |
| Book: I Am... Sasha Fierce | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |