Dealing with the death of loved ones is never easy, but sometimes music can help – especially if music plays a role in the lives of both the departed and survivors. And some survivors find both meaning and consolation in commissioning a work of new music to honor the memory of those they have lost.

On today’s date in 2007, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia gave the premiere of such a memorial work, entitled Love Abide. The work was commissioned by Paul Rowley, who for years had driven his wife Miriam to weekly Choral Society of Philadelphia rehearsals, where she sang alto, always, said her husband, “beaming with excitement.” 

After her sudden death in 2003, Rowley asked the society's artistic director to choose a composer to write a tribute to his wife. Rowley had a text in mind for the lyrics and wanted an alto solo and a female composer. The commission went to the British composer Roxanna Panufnik and the selected text was the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, which includes the lines: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all thinks, endures all things …  faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968) – Love Abide (London Oratory School Choir; London Mozart Players; Lee Ward, cond.) Signum 564