Three editions in one: high voice (in G), medium voice (in F) or low voice (in D) with piano accompaniment. Also includes optional violin obbligato parts.
Gounod wrote the first version of this famous song in 1852 and it was published in December of that year by Mayaud as Premier prelude de J. S. Bach.
The words are by Lamartine, 'Vers sur un album' from his Recueillments poetiques bof 1839. Exactly when these words were supplanted by those of the 'Ave Maria' is not clear, but it seems to have happened within the first few years of the song's life.
After a century and a half the piece is still sung, played and loved the world over, and this is surely its own guarantee of musical value, as it is of the composer's more general gift as a songwriter.