Mascagni's Ave Maria is an adaption of his beloved Intermezzo (a piece of music performed between two scenes or acts in an opera) from the opera, Cavalleria Rusticana. Gounod's work was originally published for violin/cello with piano and harmonium, but in 1859, after receiving a request from Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann (Gounod's future father-in-law who transcribed Gounod's improvisation) Jacques Léopold Heugel released a vocal version with the melody set to the text of the Ave Maria prayer. 1 in C Major, which Bach published in 1722 as part of 'The Well-Tempered Clavier,' a book of piano music Bach wrote to sell to students interested in learning and perfecting their piano technique. In 1853, French composer, Charles Gounod improvised a melody to Johann Sebastian Bach's Piano Prelude No.
