[Sirius Lee]

Still, the Romantic, Schubert, while a bad Catholic, penned what is possibly the greatest sacred aria of them all in his Ave Maria. His Masses however are merely serviceable, but not on the level of Verdi or even Dvorak.

Strange that one of the greatest composers of Lieder would have such a hard time with Masses and opera.

[AnAmericanMother]

But he wrote it as part of the "Lady of the Lake" song cycle. The fact that it fits the "Ave Maria" is sort of coincidental (even though it's a prayer to the Virgin in the original).

Schubert died so young, it's hard to say how his art might have developed given more time and experience. But his Lieder are just simply spectacular - Mahler is the only composer that I think even comes close, at least in that Germanic vein.

[Salvation]

I’ll take Gounod’s Ave Maria any day.