Who is 'Mary' and why is she in so many songs, from classical to rock?

Mary. The name seems to be uttered from the soul, a guttural purge of emotional discord.

Sometimes soft, often violent, her name can be howled either side of praising, or cursing, the heavens above.

She's been in the lyrics from third century Christian hymns to 1800s Romanticism, from '60s blues and pop to 1990s grunge and hip-hop.

She's been screamed at during the 2000s alternative music fortification, made occasionally decipherable in the 2010s mumble-rap travesty, autotuned into shape by today's producer-smeared factory trash.

For me, she's been a regular visitor in Jimi Hendrix's The Wind Cries Mary, Supergrass's dark and dangerous Mary, or Sparkadia's angst-driven song of the same name.

Regardless of your musical tastes, Mary's been there, featured in more music than any other woman. But who is she, and why are so many singers apparently obsessed?

Starting with the obvious, Mary gave birth to the most influential of rebels.

"The historical figure of Jesus Christ was as a teacher and prophet. He gathered together a small group from Galilee, which was in many ways subversive of the prevailing culture, and especially Roman rule," independent scholar and social commentator Steven Ogden said.

"He had followers, and women followers, and it looks like Mary, his mother, and [follower] Mary Magdalene, were part of that group."

According to the gospels, Dr Ogden said, both Marys were by Christ's side right up to his crucifixion, and were also joined at that moment by yet another Mary, the wife of Clopas.

But as the idea of Christ evolved, in the second and third centuries, into him being the son of God, so too did the argument that his birth had to be divine.

Subsequently, Mary was increasingly venerated and sung about.

Dr Ogden said there also emerged "a gradual suspicion of the human body" among Gnostic groups.

The early church subsequently wanted to distance Christ from any "possibility of pollution", which reinforced that he had special or divine origins.

From the 11th century, so-called Marian music grew more prominent, surging with the 1400s Renaissance era that gave rise to vocal polyphony and printed music, and then Baroque from the 1600s, with the emergence of large orchestras and counterpoint composition.

Mary was the subject of works from Bach in that era to Schubert in the late Classical and early Romantic periods, and attracted her own "liturgical and spiritual focus" to the point that it created debate and argument about just how high her status should be in religious doctrines.

"Some people within the Catholic and Anglican traditions would treat Mary almost as a divine figure, but others wouldn't," Dr Ogden said.

Mary Magdalene was also the subject of music, notably in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar, in which lyricist Tim Rice took the often contested view that she was a prostitute before following Christ.

Accurate or otherwise, the idea of a person with a troubled past finding grace added to the intrigue.

A common name

Elder Conservatorium of Music Associate Professor Paul Watt said another reason Mary featured so prominently in music was because it was the most common name for a woman in the 19th century.

This was particularly useful in the men-only, high-society supper clubs of the era, in which songs were performed that were not always appropriate for minors.

"If you're singing about Mary, it could mean anybody and so you don't then single out any particular woman," Dr Watt said.

He said there could also have been a little anti-Roman Catholic sentiment in the mix, or "fun pokery, as it were", especially in Protestant England where there were restrictions on Roman Catholicism and a general rejection of Marian dogma.

Interestingly, Dr Watt said, Mary did not feature strongly in England's notorious Bawdy Songbooks of the 1830s to '40s, which featured "revolting" and "sexually explicit material" printed in illicit pocket books.

What struck Dr Watt, however, was the prevalence of other female names in the lyrics that, like Mary, had two syllables.

He pointed out that the word Mary typically fell an interval to its second syllable when vocalised, adding to its sing-ability.

"There's a probably a diphthong on the 'a' in some accents too," Dr Watt said.

A diphthong is a combined, or gliding, vowel sound.

In Mary's case, it's the "ea" diphthong in "M-a-ry", which makes it an easy and strong name to sing in a variety of settings.

This includes amplified, modern music in which a singer may howl Mary in a narrative that has no obvious religious connection.

A 'femme fatale'

According to a fan website interview with Supergrass singer Gaz Coombes, they used the name Mary following a band exercise that included creating psychological insults to imaginary people that would freak out a would-be psychiatrist.

Sparkadia's lead singer Alex Burnett also reportedly used the name to reflect a fictional woman in his anguished song, Mary.

Jimi Hendrix' The Wind Cries Mary was reportedly an apology to his girlfriend at the time, Kathy Mary Etchingham, after an argument that started over mashed potatoes — although some lyrics were reportedly borrowed from a poem he'd written to a previous girlfriend.

"Maybe the figure has become stereotyped as like a femme fatale, or it's just convenient," Dr Watt said.

Monash University Literary Studies senior lecturer Chris Murray said there was truth about Mary being an "easy rhyme", but he believed the religious aspect behind it was "very important".

Dr Murray said he had recently been keen on the Beatles song, Let it Be, which he interpreted as referencing the "consoling blessed virgin", the "compassionate mother figure".

"The Beatles had been on such a spiritual odyssey that it's striking they'd end up where two of them started: Irish Catholic Marianism," he said, referring to George Harrison and Paul McCartney.

Dr Murray also pointed out that in the mid-20th century, "the Vatican became wary of the Marian cult, so Marianism could be seen as weirdly countercultural from that time on, with Ireland as an outlier".

Dr Ogden said Mary represented a counter to aspects of the Western Christian church, which for centuries was "very strongly masculine and patriarchal", and included "popes and bishops who emulated kings".

"Women for centuries were excluded from leadership in most churches, denigrated for centuries."

Dr Ogden said it was part of the burden of the history of the Western church.

"In Australia, my sense is church membership is declining and people are starting to explore their own sense of spirituality and identity, and it's becoming very eclectic," he said.

"I see Mary as a leader in the early church, someone who would have shown some sense of courage.

"There's something about the symbolism of Mary as a source of grace, comfort, tenderness and humanity, which is deeply and universally appealing."