The composer Peter Cornelius (1824–1874) from Mainz often called himself a 'poet-composer': All his life, he busied himself with composing and writing alike. No wonder that he had devoted himself particularly to the composition of songs, already in his student days in Berlin in the late 1840s. The newly edited 'Ave Maria' was found among the composer's unpublished works. Although it bears the dedication 'Fräulein von Hillebrandt zum 13. September 1862', it was probably created earlier. It is a s...