Ave Maria narratives

Ave Maria narratives

Diana has provided a lot of technical details on her singing for each of her ten versions of ‘Ave Maria’. But she’s deliberately omitted the crucial metaphor, narrative or image that guided each interpretation. That’s because, rather than telling you what to imagine, we’d be very interested to gather listeners’ impressions. What kind of story do you imagine generating each version?

Here’s the German text with a fairly literal English translation.

Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,                    Hail, Mary! Maiden mild! 
Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen,                Oh listen to a maiden's pleading;
Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild             From this rock, unyielding and wild,
Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen.             My prayer will go to you.
Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,          Safe may we sleep until the morning,
Ob Menschen noch so grausam sind.            Though men be so cruel.
O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen,        Oh Maiden, see this maiden's sorrows. 
O Mutter, hör ein bittend Kind!              Oh Mother, hear a pleading child! 
Ave Maria!                                   Hail Mary!