7 August 2023

Ave Maria by Caccini - The Great Deception

When we analyze the most frequently played pieces during ceremonies, we can clearly see that those composed by Charles Gounod and Franz Schubert are the most popular. In third place, however, we find a piece created by… well… Giulio Caccini?

Many people write to us saying they would like to hear the song “Ave Maria” at their wedding. It is rare for someone to specify a composer. However, there are hundreds of pieces composed to the text of the Ave Maria prayer. Among the most famous "Ave Maria" compositions are those by Charles Gounod (based on the first prelude in C major from the first volume of Das wohltemperierte Klavier by Johann Sebastian Bach), Franz Schubert, Giulio Caccini, Pietro Mascagni, Astor Piazzolla, and Michał Lorenc. However, when we analyze which pieces are most frequently played during ceremonies, we clearly see that those by Charles Gounod and Franz Schubert are the most popular. In third place, however, we find a piece created by... well... Giulio Caccini?

Giulio Caccini (known as Giulio Romano) was an Italian composer who lived between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But who can name any of his other works apart from the famous "Ave Maria," which, in reality, he did not... in fact, he did not compose at all.

This famous “Ave Maria” is actually a contemporary piece, written in 1970 by the Russian guitarist Vladimir Vavilov. Composing pieces and attributing them to past composers was, among other things, one of Vavilov's favorite pastimes. Many compositions were created in this way—mystifications, “musical jokes”—and the most popular and well-known of these is precisely “Ave Maria.” Vavilov created it and originally attributed it to “Anonymous.” Another Soviet “specialist” in early music, Mark Shakhin, added the name “Caccini” years later, and thus the intrigue spread worldwide.

Interestingly, no element of the work—neither its harmony nor its style—attempts to conventionally resemble the characteristics of Renaissance music. The deception was only revealed when Vavilov released a CD titled Lute Music of the 16th-17th Centuries. None of the pieces on this CD actually belonged to the credited composer.