⬅️ Back to Compositions

This mini-cantata dramatizes chapter 1 of the Old Testament book of Ruth: Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth set out to return from Moab, where they have been living, to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem, following the deaths of their husbands. Naomi urges Ruth to stay in Moab among her own people, but Ruth declares “I will go with you wherever you go and make my home with you.” My model for this piece was Benjamin Britten’s Canticle II “Abraham and Isaac,” which I dearly love and which also presents a dramatic and touching story from the Old Testament.