Plainsong and Medieval Music, 19, 1, 35–65 © Cambridge University Press, 2010 doi:10.1017/S0961137109990143 Enhancing the Ave Maria in the Ars Antiqua MICHAEL ALAN ANDERSON* . The Ave Maria remains the most widely repeated prayer in Christian devotional life, and music has played a critical role in its formation and propagation. This article reviews the essential contribution of music in the dissemination of texts based on the original verses from the gospel of Luke, with new evidence concerning the tradition of affixing a petition to the core devotion. While the Ave Maria remained unfixed in form and function until the sixteenth century, this article presents three significant examples from the corpus of Ars Antiqua polyphony in which versions of the text that include both the biblical verses and a supplicatory conclusion are not only used, but are also emphasised through polyphonic techniques. Ave Maria, Gratia plena, Dominus tecum, Benedicta tu in mulieribus, Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta Maria, mater dei, Ora pro nobis peccatoribus, Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. As a result of its repetition in the rosary, the Ave Maria remains the most widely uttered prayer in Christian devotional life.1 It reverberated throughout the late Middle Ages, particularly in the fifteenth century, as Marian devotion reached its *
[email protected] Abbreviations: AH Analecta hymnica medii aevi, 55 vols., ed. Guido Maria Dreves et al. (Leipzig, 1886–1922) CAO René-Jean Hesbert, Corpus antiphonalium officii, 6 vols. (Rome, 1963–79) NCE New Catholic Encyclopedia, 15 vols., 2nd edn, (Detroit, 2003) PL Patrologiae cursus completus: series latina, 221 vols., ed.