"Ave Maria"
Franz Peter Schubert

While in the mountains with Vogl, Schubert created the lied least understood by the general public, but which today is the most popular of all his compositions, the so-called Ave Maria. Although this song is widely performed all over the world, the text most commonly used with Schubert's music is not the poem the composer originally set to music. The Latin "Ave Maria" prayer text is commonly forced to fit Schubert's notes, and it almost succeeds with a few awkward places here and there. However, the text of the "Hail Mary" prayer bears little resemblance to the original poem of this lied. It is unknown who first forced this setting, but it is a fact that the song with its "adapted" Latin words is now the version most commonly performed. What Schubert actually wrote, he called Ellens dritter Gesang (Ellen's third song). The words are from a German translation of a work by Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, and Schubert set six or seven songs from this work. In this particular scene Ellen Douglas, in hiding, prays to the Virgin Mary. Schubert's setting was a simple lied for voice with piano accompaniment.

The German text that Schubert set to music is not a perfect translation, but a fairly close one. The lied may have first been performed at the home of Sophie Weissenwolff, who made it clear that she would like the dedication, and she received it. Countess Weissenwolff subsequently became known as "the lady of the lake."

Source:
    http://classicalmus.hispeed.com/articles/schubert.html.