Franz Biebl

Franz Xaver Biebl (1 September 1906 – 2 October 2001) was a German composer of classical music. Most of his compositions were for choral ensembles.

Biebl was born in Pursruck, now part of Freudenberg, Bavaria, in 1906. He studied composition at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Biebl served as Choir Director at the Catholic church of St Maria in München-Thalkirchen from 1932 until 1939, and as an assistant professor of choral music at the Mozarteum, an academy of music in Salzburg, Austria, beginning in 1939, where he taught voice and music theory.

Biebl was drafted into the military beginning in 1943 during World War II. He was a prisoner of war from 1944 to 1946, being detained at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan. After the war, he moved from Austria to Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, where he served as director of the town chorus.

Ave Maria

Biebl's best-known work is his Ave Maria, which sets portions of the Angelus as well as the Ave Maria. The piece was composed sometime before 1 May 1959.[1]:14 The original composition was in the key of D major, but changed to C major when it was published by Wildt’s Musikverlag in 1964.[1]:15–16 The piece was brought to the United States by the Cornell University Glee Club in 1970. The ensemble met Biebl while on tour in Germany, during a recording session at a radio network where Biebl was music director. Conductor Thomas A. Sokol was given a number of Biebl's works, premiering them after returning home.[2] The Ave Maria quickly gained popularity, most notably after becoming part of the repertoire of Chanticleer. Although the Ave Maria was originally scored for male voices (TTB/TTBB), in 1985 Biebl prepared additional arrangements for SAT/SATB and SAA/TTBB choirs.[1]:16 In 1998, Biebl prepared a fourth arrangement for SSA/SSAA choir.[1]:17 As part of the Hinshaw Music, Inc. sheet music catalog, the four versions have sold over 670,000 copies between 1992 and 2016.[1]:40

Program note

Wilbur Skeels – who published some of Biebl's other works – prepared the following information about the piece for use in choral program notes.[3] All or parts of the information in this note are commonly cited by choirs recording or performing the piece.

Herr Biebl told me that when he was organist/choirmaster and teacher in the Fürstenfeldbruck parish near Munich he had in his church choir a fireman. It was common for companies, factories, police and fire departments, etc. to sponsor an employees' choir, which often would participate in choral competitions and festivals with other similar choirs. This fireman asked Biebl to please compose something for his fireman's choir for such an occasion. The result was the Ave Maria (double male choir version).

The piece gained practically no attention in Germany for many years. However, when Biebl was the head of choral programs for the Bayerischen Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio) he made a habit of inviting American choirs to come to Munich and sing on the radio and with other German choirs. One of these choirs was introduced to his Ave Maria and brought it back to the US, where it became increasingly popular. When Chanticleer recorded it, it became a hit, not only in the US but in Germany too, which now considered the piece must be special as it was such a hit in America! Biebl did arrangements for other voicings, and the seven-part mixed choir arrangement is now probably the most popular.

The text is unique in its conjoining of two sources. The first source is the thrice-daily devotional exercise called the Angelus in the Catholic Church. It is cued by the ringing of the "Angelus" bell, sometimes referred to as the "Peace Bell." It consists of a thrice-repeated "Hail Mary," each with an introductory versicle based on the Gospel, followed by a concluding versicle and prayer.

Here is the first part of the Angelus, the only part that Biebl uses:

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae The Angel of the Lord announced to Mary

Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. And she conceived by the Holy Spirit.

[Ave Maria, Sancta Maria.] [Hail Mary, Holy Mary.]

Maria dixit: Mary said:

Ecce ancilla Domini Behold the handmaiden of the Lord

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Do to me according to your word.

[Ave Maria, Sancta Maria.]
[Hail Mary, Holy Mary.]

Et verbum caro factum est And the Word was made flesh

Et habitavit in nobis And dwelt among us.

[Ave Maria, Sancta Maria]
[Hail Mary, Holy Mary]
[Ora pro nobis sancta Dei genetrix . . .]

In place of the 'Ave Maria, Sancta Maria' from the Angelus text, Biebl has substituted the first part of the even more familiar text of the standard 'Ave Maria' prayer [Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, etc.] and in lieu of the closing versicle and prayer of the 'Angelus' he has substituted the second part of the 'Ave Maria' [Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis, etc.], so that the whole is a hybrid of the two ancient texts.

Instrumental arrangements

The San Francisco Renegades, an all-age Drum and Bugle Corps, first adapted sections of Biebl's Ave Maria in their 2003 show: "Red Skies At Night". In 2005 they played the piece as the opener to their show, "The Days of Future Past". In 2006 the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, an International World Class Corps based in Rockford, Illinois, used the piece in its 2006 field show "Faust," further expanding awareness of Biebl's arrangement. Both drum and bugle corps continue to perform Franz Biebl's Ave Maria as part of their yearly repertoire.

Several transcriptions and arrangements of the Biebl "Ave Maria" have been written since 2010. One transcription is by Jerry Brubaker, horn player and arranger for 30 years with the US Navy Band, done after hearing the piece sung at a Navy funeral. It has been performed by the Navy Band horn section and the NIH Community Orchestra Horn Club on numerous occasions. In 2018 Triplo Press of Minneapolis, Minnesota, published an arrangement of the work by James Olcott for 12 trumpets.

Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps uses Franz Biebl's Ave Maria as their corps song.

US First Amendment litigation

In 2009–10, an arrangement of the Ave Maria for wind ensemble was the subject of litigation that reached the United States Supreme Court. At issue was whether a school district was justified in prohibiting an instrumental performance of the piece (without lyrics) at a high school graduation ceremony due to its underlying religious nature. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the school district's actions.[4] The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, but Justice Samuel Alito issued a rare written opinion dissenting from the Court's decision.[5] In a footnote, Alito described Biebl's setting of the Ave Maria text as "relatively obscure" in comparison to settings by Franz Schubert, Charles Gounod, and other more well-known composers.

References
  1. Oltman, Matthew (July 2017). The Iconic One-Hit Wonder: The History and Reception of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  2. Michael Slon, Songs from the Hill – A History of the Cornell University Glee Club.
  3. ChoralNet Forums Archived 23 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine (visited 5 March 2012). Wilbur Skeels (1938–2011) was a pastor, accompanist, composer, and music publisher who knew Biebl and published some of his works through Skeels' Cantus Quercus Press. See H. Wilbur Skeels online obituary (visited 5 March 2012) and Cantus Quercus Press (visited 5 March 2012 – website now largely defunct, except for downloadable catalog with section on Biebl's works)
  4. Nurre v. Whitehead, 580 F.3d 1087 (9th Cir. 2009), available at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16640877058818770540
  5. 130 S. Ct. 1937 (2010), available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/09-671.pdf
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