…Do you love me more than these? Is your devotion sure, always pure and true?...
Stephen Pearson is editor of one of the weekly Salvation Army magazines and Andrew Blyth is Assistant Territorial Music Director. They wrote Love’s Call for the Western Territorial Staff Songsters for their 2013 UK tour. After a grand opening chorus in C major, the tempo and key change and we have a section with syncopation as Jesus asks his disciples “Will you come and follow me?” The answer is given in the next section, first by sopranos and altos and then the whole choir, and then the music returns to C major for a homophonic section leading to a change of mood, where more questions are asked (“Do you love me more than all things?”) and answered in the affirmative, this time by unison voices first, followed by harmony. A short passage marked “recitative” leads to the extended final section which ends loudly with 6 to 8-part chords and an expansive piano part, proclaiming “Jesus calls me by his love. Redeemed and ransomed by love!”.
