This Sunday’s lectionary reading from the Epistles is 1 Corinthians 13:1–13, the famous “love” passage. Here are ten songs that set that text or are based on it. And there are many more besides!
1. “1 Corinthians 13:1–8,” chanted in Romanian by Maria Coman, 2023:
2. “Love Will Never Fail” by Leslie Jordan, Orlando Palmer, Isaac Wardell, and Paul Zach of The Porter’s Gate, from Neighbor Songs, 2019:
For a cover by the Good Shepherd Collective, featuring Jayne Sugg and Son of Cloud (Jonathan Seale) (his is one of my favorite male singing voices), see here. They add as an outro the refrain of Martin Smith’s “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.”
3. “Tell Him” by Lauryn Hill, 1998, performed by Esperanza Spalding, 2009:
The neo-soul/R&B album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Hill’s solo debut, is one of the most widely acclaimed albums of the nineties. At an evening of jazz and spoken word hosted at the White House on May 19, 2009, by then president Barack Obama, upright bass player, singer, and composer Esperanza Spalding performed her gorgeous arrangement of Hill’s “Tell Him.” The object pronoun “him” used throughout has been interpreted by listening publics as either a romantic partner or God, and the ambiguity is probably intentional. As for me, I hear the song as religious, especially given the line “the love that was shown when our lives were spared,” which I take to be a reference to Christ’s saving sacrifice. [HT]
4. “1 Corinthians 13:8–11” (excerpt) from Uganda, 2021:
This video was uploaded by Bwire Isaac, the founder of Alpha Worship Connection, a registered nonprofit that trains and equips worship leaders in Uganda. It was filmed at one of his Discipleship Training Weeks, and features a pastor named Muwanguzi playing the adungu (bow harp). I believe the language is Luganda. [HT]
5. “Love (1 Corinthians 13)” by Joni Mitchell, from Wild Things Run Fast, 1982:
The song also appears, re-recorded and in new arrangement, on Mitchell’s Travelogue (2002). Hear her speak about how the apostle Paul’s words inspired her in this two-minute video.
(Related post: “The Greatest of These,” a poem by Tania Runyan)
6. “Faith, Hope and Love” by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, performed by London Voices, dir. Ben Parry, from Heaven to Earth, 2024:
7. “El Amor (1 Corintios 13)” by Michelle Matius, 2023:
Matius is a Christian singer-songwriter and recording artist from the Dominican Republic. Like all her songs, this one is in Spanish.
8. “Live for Love” by Eric Lige, 2022:
9. “The Gift of Love” by Hal Hopson, 1972, performed by Koiné on Gesanbuch, 2008:
The music of this one is adapted from a traditional English folk tune.
10. “Kanoo” (Love) by Elfi Bohl, aka Mariyama Suso, from Suukuu Kutoo / A New Song, 1999:
Bohl’s “Kanoo” is an original setting of 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 in the Mandinka language of West Africa, which she sings to a kora self-accompaniment. She wrote and recorded it while living in The Gambia. To learn more about Bohl and her kora songs, see my previous blog post from December.
Art & Theology 